By: Daniel Christian Dugan• Published :Thursday September 26, 2024.

Abuse of power is a phrase used when describing a person in authority who misuses that authority to do things unexpected of them. But what about the abuse of one own’s personal democratic power?

In many countries where democracy thrives and there is political pluralism, where people are told that “your vote is your power” . This simply means that the ordinary person has got the power to decide those who become leaders. In a typical situation, people will go round during the months leading to General Elections, announcing to all and sundry, that they should make sure they register to vote and they should vote for only those with good qualities and fit to lead them and that vote is their power, which no one can take away from them. All the same, electorates are found to abuse this power they have on their thumbs. During the campaigning season, the politicians meet with the people, from traditional leaders, opinion leaders, religious groupings, the youth, traders, artisans and students among others, canvasing for their votes.

Instead of listening carefully to what the politician would say and judge, whether he or she is fit for the job, the electorates are rather interested in gifts in form of cash and kind, from the politicians to meet their personal desires. The politician always aware of this situation, would do his best to come fully prepared. With this, the electorate abuses his power by going for the highest bidder which may be the wrong choice. If the electorate had demanded nothing from the politicians, he can have the moral right to hold them accountable when elected into office. However, with money and gifts exchanging hands, they are considered as payment for services. Political campaigning has become very expensive these days, with a politician, contesting for a parliamentary seat spending at least $600,000.00 in one year of campaigning and it works out this way. Assuming that there are 60,000 electorates in his constituency, and the politician encounters, 50,000 of them, he is likely to spend an average of $12.00 on each person.

When he is finally elected into office, he has debts to pay and his attention would be more on how to get money to clear the debts, than to think about the needs of his people. In whatever way he can, he must make money to pay off that debt and also make more money to build up his war chest for the next elections.

He may use his position to become a broker, who will be brokering deals for government and getting paid for it. This is acceptable, legally and morally. On the other hand, he can engage in corrupt means like inflating costs of projects under his charge or using any unfair means including embezzling of money to fill up his treasury. It is the electorate who suffers. Costs of government and state businesses and projects will go up and so will inflation and taxes. This will lead to high cost of living and in the end the $12.00 that the electorate collected from the politician would be paid back in excess of $120.00 through taxes and high cost of living.

Moneyocracy in politics, is ruining the democracy and economy of many nations in the developing world. If only the electorates refuse to demand or even collect anything from the politicians, those elected into office will become more accountable to the people. But once, the electorates demand and collect gifts and cash from the politicians, they have only abused their democratic power.

Daniel Christian Dugan