SECRET BALLOTING IS NOT INHERENT TO DEMOCRACY

Dec 29, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The debate within the PPP has definitely shifted. The protests over the selection of the presidential candidate are no longer about whether the nominee should be selected/elected by the general membership or by a special congress, but instead it is now about whether the ballot for the process within the Central and Executive Committees should be “secret” or open.
Initially, there were demands in certain quarters for the candidate to be selected/elected by the general membership.
The fight to have the general membership select or elect the presidential candidate seems to be losing steam.
And of recent a new controversy has arisen. This time it is about whether the ballot within the Central and Executive Committees of the PPP should be “secret” or open.
A “secret” ballot is something of a misnomer. A ballot is never really secret. It may be private or confidential in that no one can know for sure how a particular person may have voted. The concept of a secret ballot is however not inherent to democracy. Whenever there are large numbers of persons to be polled, the ballot tends to be private. A person voting in a general election enjoys confidentiality when he or she casts his or her ballot, not secrecy. Similarly, when how someone is voting can be identified this is often seen as an open process but definitely not non-secretive.
Within the National Assembly, voting is not secretive. Voting is by acclamation and if there is uncertainty as to which side should prevail, a division is called for and the members announce how they vote. Similarly, in many small settings, voting is by open balloting in that how someone votes can be determined.
In large settings however, such as in congresses and general elections where large numbers of persons are required to vote, the process tends to be confidential, in that no one knows exactly how one person may have voted.
The Executive and Central Committees of the PPP are small bodies. Thus one can hardly see the need for there to be secret balloting. But there have been arguments made for such a process.
This is an indictment against the party, suggesting that the free exercise of will is not fully possible outside of secret balloting, a far from complimentary situation
But what does it matter? In the final analysis, the general membership of the party will be presented with a fait accompli. They will be told that the leadership of the party has selected a nominee and they will be asked to endorse that nominee. They can oppose the person, but in reality this hardly happens, because despite what the PPP might pretend it is, decision-making is top-down and not bottom-up.
This is the case with most political parties, even though there may be procedures which create the impression that the membership is directly involved in making the vital decisions. The reality is that the decisions are made at the top and endorsed at the bottom and this is not unique to the PPP.
So what does it matter whether there is a secret or open balloting for the presidential candidate of the PPP. That decision is going to be made by a small group of leaders within the PPP, and whether they do so by show of hands or by a secret folded ballot really is not going to make a big difference in terms of the understanding of the democratic process within the party. The leaders will choose and the members will adopt and adapt. This is how it has always been and this is how it will be come next month when the PPP is expected to announce its presidential candidate.
But why does it matter who is chosen as the party’s presidential candidate? Whoever is chosen will have the unenviable task of running on the record of PPP administrations since 1992, including perhaps defending a certain style of leadership.
Whoever is chosen will have to depend on the financial support of the powerful economic class within the country. That class will garner the resources to fund the party’s electoral campaign.
So what is there to inspire the membership of the party to take a stand and press for a bottom-up approach to the selection process of the party’s presidential candidate? What does the ordinary member or supporter of the party have to gain by calling for a different process?
In the final analysis it does not matter. The future of the PPP lies in the hands of the Central Executive and the powerful economic elite that will fund the election campaign of the chosen one.

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SECRET BALLOTING IS NOT INHERENT TO DEMOCRACY

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