Don’t challenge results for selfish reasons
SIR – Al Gore had won the popular vote and most likely the presidency of the world’s superpower if it were not for the hanging chaps in Florida in 2001. He had the option of pressing harder through public demonstrations and arduous legal battles.
SIR – Al Gore had won the popular vote and most likely the presidency of the world’s superpower if it were not for the hanging chaps in Florida in 2001. He had the option of pressing harder through public demonstrations and arduous legal battles.
These acts might have won him the presidency but at a detrimental cost to the nation’s democratic foundations. So he forewent his individual ambitions and conceded defeat, making a name in history as a patriot who cared more about his nation than his individual ambitions.
In 2004, when President Bush clinched the re-election, there were allegations of fraud and technical glitches in the state of Ohio, where African American voters were disenfranchised. However, Senator Kerry decided that they were not big enough to affect the result and conceded defeat on November 3.
I know we are not in the USA and are far away from emulating such political maturity. However, we have one thing in common – we are all human beings. Any life lost, limb injured or maimed should not be for selfish interest but a worthy cause. It will be a great honour and an unprecedented patriotic act for the loser of this election to concede defeat and let us build this broken and divided nation, other than taking us through a predictably violent protest.
Conversely, if any of the candidates decides to go ahead and protest the results, please ask yourselves, “Why am I doing so?†If lives are lost as you protest, is it for yourself or your nation? Let the objective answer to this question guide your decision or else you will wash your hands afterwards but like Pontius Pilate, that blood will stick on your conscience.
Philip Lule
Maryland, USA
These acts might have won him the presidency but at a detrimental cost to the nation’s democratic foundations. So he forewent his individual ambitions and conceded defeat, making a name in history as a patriot who cared more about his nation than his individual ambitions.
In 2004, when President Bush clinched the re-election, there were allegations of fraud and technical glitches in the state of Ohio, where African American voters were disenfranchised. However, Senator Kerry decided that they were not big enough to affect the result and conceded defeat on November 3.
I know we are not in the USA and are far away from emulating such political maturity. However, we have one thing in common – we are all human beings. Any life lost, limb injured or maimed should not be for selfish interest but a worthy cause. It will be a great honour and an unprecedented patriotic act for the loser of this election to concede defeat and let us build this broken and divided nation, other than taking us through a predictably violent protest.
Conversely, if any of the candidates decides to go ahead and protest the results, please ask yourselves, “Why am I doing so?†If lives are lost as you protest, is it for yourself or your nation? Let the objective answer to this question guide your decision or else you will wash your hands afterwards but like Pontius Pilate, that blood will stick on your conscience.
Philip Lule
Maryland, USA