From my visual essay, 15 Views of Malacanang: Reflections on the Relationship between People and Power
Just a thought in this election period:
Vote buying is a perennial problem and feature of Philippine elections. Obviously, politicians who invest in vote buying have an eye on "recouping" their investment once they win. Yet many people, despite being aware of this fact continue to sell their votes. What gives?
For me, I have come to believe that selling of votes is not an act of irresponsibility or ignorance on the part of the voters..Voting is such an organic exercise that people will not really do something that will very clearly hurt them. Although vote buying and selling have ultimately harmful consequences, people sell their votes because that is their only chance to squeeze something out of their politicians who they know are sure to forget them after the election. In this sense, vote selling is the poor people's political statement.
Those who want to see the end of vote selling must show the people how things can be different instead of just telling them not to sell their votes.
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