EDITORIAL — The power of the polls

These past two weeks saw elections bring, or promise to bring, drastic changes in several countries.

In Serbia, a student-led party unseated the ruling party of a dictator which has been in power since 2012.

In Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva won a fourth term after Brazilians rejected far-right candidate Flavio Bolsonaro who immediately left the country. Bolsonaro had been heavily favored by surveys to win.

In Israel, voters voiced their dissatisfaction of how the present government was being run by voting for one that has quite a number of factions it can only function as a coalition that has to cooperate with each other.

Then, in the most consequential election to date, voters in the U.S. gave the Democrats the majority of the Lower House and the Senate, changing the landscape of how the country will be governed for the last two years of the Trump administration.

People often forget how powerful they are as voters. They can make champions out of underdogs, losers out of entrenched traditional politicians, and even prove even the most believable surveys wrong.

With their voting power they can elect the right person to the right post. But they also should be cautioned that with that same power they can put the wrong person in power as well. Sadly, this is something we have seen happen too often. For example when someone like, say an athlete or a showbiz personality who has never served in public office, is given a mandate to serve in higher office.

This is why voting is considered the most sacred duty we can do as citizens. And this is also why those who don’t vote have no right to complain about how things are being run in this country.

As for those who sell their votes or who vote for someone who clearly doesn’t deserve or doesn’t have the capacity to serve in public office, they also belong to the category of those who have no right to complain.