Dear editor,

ALTHOUGH the election result is not yet known two days after the election, America, the world’s greatest and longest continuous democracy is not suffering from “electile dysfunction” as what obtained in Guyana during that five-month period of attempts by the coalition to rig the elections.

Comments have been made about the inordinate amount of time it is taking to count the ballots and declare a winner in last Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election. Protests and legal action have been pursued to address issues pertaining to ballot-counting, causing some people to think that the process or system has been broken or is not working. The electoral system is working. The country is not at an economic or political standstill. Unlike what has happened in other countries, Guyana being an illustrative example, there is no “electile dysfunction” in America, playing on the more popular biological term relating to the human organ. I am not sure if other academics or writers have coined the term “electile dysfunction,” but it was discussed with me by Prof Ram Shankar of India on Wednesday night. I googled it and nothing came up.

I define “electile dysfunction” as a breakdown of the electoral process, preventing people from voting and or counting of ballots, and that has brought the country to a standstill. That is not happening in America. It happened in Guyana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, and other countries. Everything is normal in America. There is no instability as what took place in Guyana when a party loses an election. Normal life goes on in the USA — schools are in session, staff are at work, and people are milling around, shopping, and so forth.

As someone who studied and taught political science for over 40 years, including American politics, I know enough to make a bold claim that the American political system is strong, very democratic, and working well — no evidence of electile dysfunction. I cannot think of another country that has a better political system in terms of balancing of power among the three branches of government and among the central government, state, and local governments.  In America, power rests with the people and not the elected leaders as in Guyana. The U.S. may not have the best electoral system in that the most popular candidate with the most votes may not necessarily win the presidency. But it is the greatest nation with strong democratic credentials. Elections are free and fair, leaving out the era when Black Americans were prevented from voting or their ballots were not counted or some incidents of suppression of minority votes. The counting of ballots was a problem in 2000 because of hanging chads on computer voting cards, but so far in 2020 the counting of ballots is continuing apace this week and would conclude in a few days. I do not think the court would intervene to stop the count or prevent a recount. All the ballots will be counted and the right winner will be declared. The trend shows a Biden/Harris victory. It may take a week if not longer for an official declaration.

The country eagerly looks forward to a declaration. The reason the counting is taking so long is the large number of absentee and mail-in ballots that are slowly being processed. This is the first election for mail-in ballots — which was experimented with because of COVID. The counting of those ballots could not commence until the conclusion of voting on Tuesday night. It is a lengthy process to remove ballots from envelopes, verify signatures and addresses, and then place them on machines to be processed. There are millions of those ballots. And voters had until Tuesday to mail them and three days for arrival at polling centres. So officials have to wait till Friday evening to close the process and then count all the ballots. The final results with mail-in ballots would not be known before Saturday, at the earliest. President Trump has moved to the court to stop the count in swing states. He is going down to defeat as I had projected in earlier commentaries. It is doubtful that the court will rule in his favour.

Yours truly,
Dr Vishnu Bisram