Democratic Elections & Electoral Democracy

Abstract

Historically, the idea of elections is one of the old human ideas that contribute to the resolution of disputes and disagreements on an opinion. Voting is an important and fundamental means through which individuals can influence government decisions. In order to ensure free and fair elections, it is necessary to provide a democratic status and major freedoms for citizens. The General Assembly of the United Nations has stressed that periodic and fair elections are necessary and indispensable elements in the ongoing efforts to protect the rights and interests of the governed people, the need to respect sovereignty and the right to self-determination. As democracy, development and the respect of all human rights and fundamental freedoms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.
And this correlation between election and democracy, led the researcher to the enquiry on the usefulness of the electoral process without democracy? If it does happen, can their results be assessed as satisfactory rather than figurative? Or is it impossible to be for its being empty of content? In other words, should the elections are conducted in a democratic society, are we always confronted with the inevitability of positive results? Or is it to be relative for being dependent on the condition of the elector’s public awareness and culture? After discussing the subject of the elections, the standards of its practice and its relation to democracy, the researcher has found the following results: The concept of democracy in modern era was associated with the idea of election. However, the election is not all what democracy really means. Election is a kind of democracy, so it must depend on democratic basis in order to be real.

Moreover, unawareness of the citizen exercising the election raises doubtful elections that are subject to challenges. And that the viability of elections for development is a matter of public culture, as without such cultural awareness makes it difficult to develop and strengthen an electoral system that promotes and strengthens democracy.