Ballot Box has strength. Use it to fight corruption!

J. Roughan

6 November 2009

Honiara

 

Politicians greatest fear is, not the law, but the ballot box! Every four years each and every one of them must face Solomons citizens and win  enough votes to remain in office or to secure a place in parliament. There is no way around this requirement. Either the politician gets enough people's vote or he finds himself sitting on the outside looking in.

 

The Ballot Box, then, is the vital key in fighting corruption, reducing sleaze and shaking the political system clear of incompetents, misfits and losers. Why is it then that in next week's seminar on understanding and fighting the nation's corruption cancer not a word is mentioned about Solomons citizens, their Ballot Box power and how this tremendous untapped gift could be harnessed to fight corruption in its many guises.

 

Next week the second seminar on anti-corruption takes place at FFA's Conference Centre. Its preliminary papers, distributed a week before the seminar, outline the gist and direction of the talks scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next week. However, not a single mention is made of the most important persons in the whole anti-corruption campaign, the nation's voters. 

 

Solomon Islands citizens have continuously, constantly and consistently voiced out their distaste of the venal, corrupt and disappointing politician. Over a 22 year period of seven national elections 1984-2006, the Solomon Islanders voter has dismissed 44% (on average) of candidates seeking to return to parliament. Even more telling, however, is that in each election fewer and fewer winning candidates gain 50% or more of the popular vote. In the 2006 election, for instance, only 3 winning candidates were able to attract 50% or more of the vote. The other 47 members scored either in the low 40% or worse still, 30% or less.

 

However, the Solomons voter could be a powerful ally in the fight against the cancer corruption and best served if there were such a thing as a Recall Law and secondly, a dismantling of the first past the post election system which currently dominates our politics.

 

What a difference it would make, then, especially in the corruption fight, if there was Recall legislation. A Recall Law gives voters power to call for fresh elections if and when their member, after some months in office, proves to be corrupt, quite incompetent or just a poor performer for  people's interests. As said in the beginning paragraph above, the single thing a politician fears above all else is having to face the electorate to gain back his seat. A Recall Law would make it legal for the voters in a constituency to dismiss their member before the four year period for gross incompetence in office and vote in a new person.

 

Many nations have Recall legislation on their law books and with a number of safe guards in place to protect from frivolous use of this law would be a great way of keeping members' 'feet to the fire'. A politician would then be forced over the four years in power to keep looking over his shoulder to make sure he is performing well rather than as it is today, only after 4 years in power does the member begin to worry about Mr. and Mrs. Voter. 

 

But a more powerful tool to fight corruption at its roots is in scrapping the 'first past the post' system which runs or should I say ruins our political system. If a winning candidate attracts 25% of the vote so long as he comes in first, he gets the seat. So, as has happened in a number of  cases, the winning member had 7 out of 10 people vote AGAINST him but because he got the greater number of votes than the second candidate, the 3 out of 10 who did actually back him were enough to push him over the winning line. Something is wrong with this kind of democracy!

 

Of course, let's make strong legislation to keep corruption out of politics. But don't forget the one group which is most adversely effected by the corrupt politician, the country's citizens. They have a clear interest in insuring clean politics on all levels of society. Let's use them more effectively and watch corruption start to dry up.