Who says a single voter can't make a difference?
In Colombia's local elections last weekend not only did a single voter make a difference, but in some cases the single vote was the ONLY vote cast.
In the town of Murindo the new mayor won a landslide with a total electoral tally of 1-0. It seems that all of the town's residents had been forced to flee by a right-wing paramilitary force two weeks prior to the election.
The official government view was that the elections were a triumph for democracy, with "ballots not bullets" being the deciding factor. In actuality bullets were used more often than ballots; in at least nine towns, mayors were elected with fewer than 20 votes.
Right-wing paramilitary forces swept the countryside and either forced left-wing politicians to leave town or simply killed them. In other cases, such as Murindo, the squads took the more innovative tactic of forcing whole villages to vacate in order to prevent the election of left-wing candidates.
Not to be outdone, leftists engaged in their own campaign of terror. The left-wing National Liberation Army last week kidnapped two election observers from the Organization of American States. Both sides issued death threats to potential voters.
Kind of makes us nostalgic for the good old days, when countries like the Soviet Union practiced democracy by peacefully and universally sending citizens to vote for the candidate of the party's choice.
(Source: CNN.)
Quote of the Day!
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
-- Abraham Lincoln, speech, May 19, 1856
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