A credible canvass

In the end, four days of spirited debate on how the canvassing of the votes for the president and vice president should proceed netted almost nothing for the minority in Congress.  Despite the rationality of their proposals, its members had no choice but to submit to the law of agreement enshrined in parliamentary practice. Outnumbered, … Read more

Politics of decency

Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born Roman Catholic widow of India’s late prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991, worked for six years to revive the Congress Party.  This was the party her husband’s grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, led when he emerged as the first prime minister of an independent India; the same party that made … Read more

Exit polls and their social context

If a stranger came to your house at the end of election day to do an exit poll, what are the chances that you would reveal to this person how you voted?  The Social Weather Stations said that 8% of its exit poll respondents gave no answer when asked who their choice for president was.  … Read more

Can I trust this person?

Tomorrow, May 10, we vote for people who, we hope, will lead our nation to a better future.  Many remain undecided because while their instincts incline them toward certain candidates, their conscience and/or intellect compel them to override their intuitions. There is nothing extraordinary in this.  We often start with a basic attraction or dislike … Read more

The decline of political parties

The demand of responsible voters to know the platforms of the presidential candidates is quite tragic, if not amusing.  Political platforms go hand in hand with political parties; they make no sense if there are no parties to carry them out. With the exception of a few party-list groups, political parties became totally irrelevant in … Read more