In Democracy’s free elections are vital to the survival of this form of government.
“The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 21).
To many the right of the population to elect representatives and to impact the political course of a regime is the groundwork which democracy is based upon. In the absence of elections citizens lose the right and opportunity to initiate a change of leadership, affect legislation, and thus hampering the chance of protecting against a government encroaching on citizens freedoms. For many though the right to participate in free elections have been hampered with struggle and oppression in democratic nations, for example the suffragette movement and the struggle of African Americans in the 1960s to gain the right to vote have shown us that even in democratic states the right to take part in free elections has not always been guaranteed for every citizen. Most democracies have opted for a parliamentary system were elections elect members both to the legislature and select the party with the majority winning party forming a government. Although in states such as France, the US and Poland have a system of presidential leadership were elections take place for the leader of the executive and the legislature at different occasions. In a democratic state elections must be free, fair and regular to uphold the principles of Democracy for example in the United States there is an election every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (www.usa.gov) while here in the UK due to the Fixed-Terms Parliaments Act 2011 which states elections must be held on the first Thursday in May every five years , however the Prime Minster may call one earlier if so wished (www.parliament.com). Opposition parties are allowed and are another vital instrument in ensuring that Democracy does not fall into an Authoritarian regime by offering citizens the chance to have options in whom they elect to lead them. Although for many years for example in the UK it has been said that there was no apparent opposition to the Conservative government as both Labour and the Liberal Democrats had policy positions that were virtually the same as the Tories. However, with the rise of Corbyn many commentators have contended he offers a real alternative and opposition which will only strengthening Democracy (Williams, 2015). In Authoritarian states elections are a vastly different experience from that of a Democracy, in the Soviet Union elections were meaningless to population and many were forced into going to a polling station and placing their x beside that of the ruling parties box. Elections in these states have been hampered with cries of corruption and ballot tampering with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe stating that the Russian election of 2012 was fatally flawed as Putin faced no real opposition and his election was enhanced by government spending on his campaign (Barry and Schwritz, 2012). In elections in Authoritarian states opposition are frequently besieged by intimidation and even assassination, Putin’s Russia is well known for this most famously the shooting of well known opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in the shadow of the Kremlin (Ioffe, 2015) highlighting the danger that shrouds elections in Authoritarian states and showing the obvious disparities between it and Democracy. Political leaders in Turkey, Iran and the likes of Egypt to name a few have been jailed on charges that are often completely false. In the likes of Russia opposition is tolerated only in cases where they are completely controlled by the state and, mere puppets for the likes of Putin to display a false sense of fairness in elections. Morgenbesser has stated that elections take place in Authoritarian states to identify opposition to the rulers and see if this opposition has any popular support therefore enabling them to act and crush this opponent, also to gain legitimacy from the western world (Morgenbesser, 2015) stressing elections are shams in these states.
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