The people have voted and the results are out. The Congress has emerged better than at any other time in the political history of the State and that through a clear mandate. However, there are Congress stalwarts who fell by the wayside amongst whom are Sayeedullah Nongrum, Charles Pyngrope, Founder Cajee and Shitlang Pale. The delimitation of constituencies has seen an overlap in many places and ended up with more than two sitting MLAs fighting it out from the same constituency. Many applicants for the Congress ticket who were denied it contested as Independents and won their seats.
There are lessons from this election for every political party. Voters have become ingenious in their voting behaviour. They no longer make an open display of support for any single candidate. As a result they get money from as many candidates as there are in the fray. This has meant that all candidates had to spend money and yet only one candidate could win. Although there is stiff denial from all political parties that candidates used money power to woo voters, it does not change the facts. But now that people have become wiser money is no longer a guarantee for any candidate to win elections. In a sense this is a happy development. This was how the proponents of the Clean Election Campaign in Kenya managed to bring about change in voting behaviour. They told the voters to take the money that candidates give them but to vote according to their conscience. This is what most voters in Meghalaya did. So while money did play a role, it did not necessarily help candidates to win elections.
Perhaps more creative strategies need to evolve from social groups that are trying to bring in clean elections in Meghalaya. The problem is that groups like Meghalaya Election Watch (MEW) get active only on the eve of the election. Political education and awareness campaigns to change voting behaviour must be ongoing and consistent. We cannot blame the people for voting who they did if they don’t have enough information to make an informed choice. And that exactly is what politicians take advantage of. Some of the election speeches this time were mere character assassination exercises. The candidates did not have much to say about their own objectives for contesting but railed against their opponents. That this happened even in elite constituencies of Shillong does not speak much about the urban voters. Candidates tend to play with peoples’ emotions and their vulnerabilities. Many use intimidation as a tool and frightened voters towed the line. So all this talk about free and fair election is a lot of bunkum! We have a long way to go before we can talk of deepening democracy in Meghalaya.