GOVERNMENT’S work cannot stop during an election cycle; if it does, it could fracture the democratic progress that observers often praise.

This is according to Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with Responsibility for Public Affairs and Information, Kwame McCoy.

The European Union’s final report on the 2025 elections, “praises the process, professionalism, reforms, peaceful atmosphere, and competence of polling staff,” yet “pivots to the familiar refrain: the ‘advantage of incumbency,’ as if good governance must be treated as a form of misconduct once an election year arrives,” Minister McCoy said.

He argued that such reasoning could paralyse governance.

“Officials would have to avoid visiting communities that rely on support, shelve projects already budgeted, and curb routine state work, all because someone might call it an ‘advantage.’ Ribbon-cutting ceremonies? Too risky. Hospitals opening? Off-limits. Subsidies for farmers? A scandal waiting to happen. The only way to stay ‘balanced’ is to become invisible,” Minister McCoy said.

The minister said this is “not how democracies function.”

He said, “Governments in Europe campaign on results. They launch programmes, highlight achievements, cut ribbons, and claim credit for their work. Nobody pauses progress to soothe the opposition,” he stated. “The public judges a government by what it delivers, not by how quietly it retreats before an election.”

Minister McCoy added that treating effective governance as electoral misconduct, “confuses diligence with wrongdoing.”

“Schools, roads, hospitals, and social programmes are not ‘incumbency perks.’ They are the work of a government fulfilling its mandate,” according to the minister.

He concluded that “Good governance is not cheating. It is expected. A thriving democracy is measured by what it delivers, not by how quietly it steps aside.” (DPI)