I honestly think an abstain campaign can do us some good during these times. The family went to the voting precinct at noon today to practice the hallmark of this thing we call democracy, and I cast my ballot with only one sure name in mind. That name I wrote in a single line in the senators list, and then I put huge Xs on the rest.
Many people I know know that I am going to vote for only one candidate in the recent election. I could have appreciated any reaction suggesting I was being "too picky" or "too choosy" but frustratingly, what people usually tell me is that my vote would be sayang. It's an opportunity missed, they would reprimand me, with a patriotic tone as if encouraging people to write names in the ballot is nationalism defined. Exercise your right was their mantra in the meantime, and I think they were not wrong in pulling people out of their apathy to take a few minutes (or hours) of their sorry lives to make the future of this equally sorry country even sorrier.
I thought it was funny. Of course, I did exercise my right to suffrage. And my almost empty ballot contained a vote well-spent. I think more than writing names, it's about bestowing the power to make or break this nation on a certain person. I refused to vote for the lesser evil. I did not vote just because a candidate is "winnable", or out of fear that I'd be left out of the bandwagon. I voted for only one, the one I would allow to make decisions on my behalf, to govern me. Not because he was less rotten from the decomposing lot.
I think that's democratic enough.
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