National politics and elections are dominated by emotions, lack of self-confidence, fear of the other, insecurity, infection of the body politic by the virus of victimhood. We think that democracy can change a lot of things, but we’re being fooled. We’ve been taught that democracy is having elections, but it isn’t. Elections are the most horrendous aspect of democracy; the most mundane, trivial, disappointing and dirty aspect! However, democracy cannot be defined as the existence of elections alone.

Elections, electoral reforms and regional and international cooperation in such democratic endeavors have become a routine in today’s world. The growing international partnership, manifesting in areas ranging from technical and financial support for electoral reforms to regular poll observations by national and international teams, is an indication.