South Africa has a new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who has vowed to tackle corruption in his country. Although with a laugh I wish him luck in doing so, it will be a daunting task given how long corruption has been and ingrained in the system.
However, any feelings of superiority I may have had vanished one I realised that democracy in the UK is faring no better.
According to an article in The Times yesterday, a 21-year old man named Mohammed Zain Quereshi was fined a total of £380 after having bragged on social media about voting twice in the last general election.
In law there is the saying that justice must not only be done, it should also be seen to be done. I am left wondering where the justice was done here.
In a democratic system, there are many rights and responsibilities. Of the former, there is the right to vote. Of the latter, there is the obligation to act in a way that maintains civil order.
However, what Mr Quereshi has done is a breach of civil order. He is bragging about voting early and voting often, notwithstanding the rule that there is to be one vote per person. As such, what Mr Quereshi has done is damage the integrity of democracy itself .
What of the penalty? The sum was a pittance in the grand scheme of things and how will the damage to the system be repaired. Has he been stripped of the right to vote? By abusing his rights as a citizen, is Mr Quereshi to be stripped of his citizenship? Must the electoral services work out how to preserve the integrity of the balloting system? Will any candidates who benefitted from illegal votes lose those votes?
There are a lot of questions. However, at a time when the UK is faced with regular witnesses protests about government and what form it should take, we must protect our democracy from the abuses of people such as Mr Quereshi. Otherwise, we run the greater risk of losing the current system in favour of something else, something protestors wish to encourage.
Unless that is the ultimate goal: to slowly eliminate the British way of political life.
If not, let’s take such abuses more seriously.