This article highlights the definition and explanation of democratic elections. Hope it would help the readers to understand brief about elections and its true meaning and essence.
First of all, let me tell you briefly about the definition and purpose behind the activity of conducting elections. Basically, there are three fundamental pillars of a democratic state including legislature, judiciary and executive. All these offices need some particular mechanism that helps to fulfill these offices in a proper way. So, election is a decision making method in which a population votes and chooses individuals to hold political offices for the smooth running of political machinery. This is the mechanism adopted by all modern and democratic societies to fulfill offices in legislature. Individuals are also selected and elected for other local and regional government institutions with the help of this process.
This tool for the selection of representatives is not limited to government and political institutions. An extensive range of many other private institutions, organizations, and clubs and business groups also adopted the process of election to choose their representatives. However, whatever the case may be, voters are always sovereign and act as ‘masters’ in the selection of their government servants. This is the basic reason why many people and political scientists consider a democratic state as ‘the government of people, by the people and for the people. However, according to some scholars rule of law is very important than anything else.
So, some political scientists and scholars give secondary importance to elections. According to them functional democracy is of prior importance. If we see an example of Pakistan where free and fair, whether or not, elections are held on regular basis, we will find the great absence of rule of law. Such countries are not representing a true essence of democracy. On the other hand, there are many countries present like Hong Kong which was once ruled by a British governor that was unelected but he introduced strong legal laws and institutions and made a strong, open and free society just because of rule of law.
