Renting out unexercised votes: The 2010 Ethiopian Election

July 22, 2009
"Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives... 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." Article 21, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948In the investing world, whence I borrowed the term vote renting, there is a process, not supported by many, by which an investor borrows shares in order to vote on a transaction to secure a desired outcome.My fear is that in the 2010 election the EPRDF-led Ethiopian government will employ a deliberate scheme to ´rent out´ the unexercised votes of millions of disgruntled citizens and declare EPRDF a winner. But, for democracy to work, the consent of the governed is a must. As the most fundamental concept of democracy, it means that citizens have the right to choose their leaders in free, fair, and regular elections. Other rights are fundamental to democracy too. Yet the right to elect one's representatives and to influence the political direction of one's government is democracy's indispensable political foundation.Without free elections, citizens cannot express their will and thus do not have the opportunity to change their leaders, address wrongs, or protest the limitation of their rights. Free elections establish the citizenry's and the individual's political rights.
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That is why world history is replete with stories of millions of people braving violence, intimidation, and other obstacles to demand the right to express their will through the ballot box.