Should election manifestos be legal contracts?
Posted on | January 31, 2011 | No Comments
Should political parties be legally obliged to follow through on their election manifestos if they find themselves in Government after the election? After all it is the manifesto that they bring to the people pre election that gets them elected, well at least is should be. In my opinion it makes a complete mockery of our democratic system as well as being an insult to the people of Ireland to tell such flagrant untruths in their desire to get into office.
Most parties never implement the majority of what they promise, and never had any intention of doing so to begin with and some even reverse pre election promises post election. Can this be called democracy? after all if a business was to make false claims about their product or service then the customer has recourse to legal redress, why not when it comes to the Government? Is it democracy to sell falsehoods to and unsuspecting people when the political parties themselves know full well that they have no intention of fulfilling their promises? Can they truly claim to have a mandate from the people when that mandate was gained under false pretences?
We need change to our political system, one of those changes needs to be full accountability, for actions while in office and for promises given to get into office. Our democracy is a precious thing, to precious a thing to be treated with contempt but those that claim to uphold it. Just look at the Arab world today, people there are dying on the streets to have democracy as did Irish people in the past. Do not treat us with contempt simply to further your own ambitions. Treat us with the respect that we deserve and our democracy will be all the stronger as a result.
Tags: Dave McInerney > Democracy > General Election 2011 > Irish General Election 2011 > People Power
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