Recently, political strategists from the "party in power" have launched an information campaign through the media and social networks, which calls on people to ignore the elections. Like, they will still choose those who are supposed to. Even in my blog, in the comments, they gave a link to an article where the author at the beginning talked for a long time about the need for the ruling elite to ensure the legitimacy of their power, and at the end gives instructions that everyone should ignore the elections and not go to the polls.
Let's dot the i's and try to figure out whether it makes sense to go to the polls or not.
Why is it so necessary for the ruling elite to at least formally create the illusion of the legitimacy of their power? Why do they spend a huge amount of effort, time and money on organizing elections and conducting large-scale information campaigns associated with them? All this is done in order to then be able to declare that their power is legitimate and everyone else must voluntarily submit to their demands. And if anyone objects, then force suppression will be applied to them, allegedly on legal grounds.
One more important point should be noted here. In this matter, psychological pressure plays a very important role, since for the most part the population is accustomed to abide by the laws and not oppose the government, but on condition that there is this very "legitimacy", that is, internal recognition of this government as legitimate. That is, we can consider certain laws or this or that government unjust, but over the years we have been taught that if everything is supposedly done according to the law, then we will have to agree with it.
Some commentators try to argue by saying that "legitimacy" and "legality" are synonymous and mean the same thing. Yes, it is possible that some time ago, during the "Roman Empire" it was so, but now from the context of the use of these terms, a different meaning follows very clearly.
What is considered legal is that formally corresponds to the officially valid laws. A certain set of rules that is created by the ruling elite mainly to protect the interests of this very ruling elite. Legality is established in court. And since the court today in Russia is part of the same ruling elite, it is obvious that one cannot count on the complete objectivity of modern courts, which is confirmed by numerous examples from life, including the situation with the registration of candidates for the upcoming elections.
What is considered legitimate is what is recognized by the legal population. And not formally, but by inner conviction. That is, everyone determines the legitimacy of something for himself. And this is the fundamental difference between legitimacy and legality.
Hence the working algorithm of any revolution.
Promotional video:
1. First, the power loses its legitimacy, that is, it becomes illegal from the point of view of the majority of the population, although formally, from the point of view of the laws in force and the decisions of the courts dependent on this power, it can be considered formally legal.
2. The population forms new organs of people's power, which from the point of view of the population are legitimate, although from the point of view of the old government they are illegal.
3. Most of the population, including the power structures, cease to obey the decisions and orders of the old government and begin to obey the decisions and orders of the new people's government. That is, at the beginning there is always an informal process of transferring power from the old power, which is not legitimate in the eyes of the people, to the new legitimate one.
4. The new people's government completely or partially abolishes the old laws that are unfair from the point of view of the population and adopts new ones. In particular, it formally legitimizes its power and makes the old power illegal.
After that, we get a new legal authority, which is legitimate from the point of view of the population.
In other words, legitimacy is synonymous with the concept of "recognized by the authorities", that is, those who have the right to establish laws, that is, the general rules of the game, dispose of public resources and use violence to protect the country from outside attack and to ensure law and order inside.
This is, so to speak, a short educational program on the topic.
Now about the upcoming elections. The authorities strive with all their might to create the appearance of their legitimacy, for which, among other things, an attempt is used to give their authorities formal legitimacy under the current legislation. To make it easier to implement, in previous periods the parasitic ruling elite of Russia made a number of changes to formal legislation, including the abolition of the minimum turnout threshold, and the “against all” column was removed from the ballots. Thus, it became easier for them to ensure the formal legality of the elections being held.
But we need to talk not about formal legality, but about legitimacy! That is, not about whether the pocket courts recognize these elections and the power formed through them as legitimate, but about whether the population itself recognizes these elections and this power.
If you did not go to the polls, you decided to ignore them on the grounds that there are no worthy candidates on the ballot, then in fact this means that you do not care who will be elected. But the most important thing is that in this case your vote and your ballot paper are “hanging in the air” and can be used by the election organizers as you like, since your failure to appear is easy enough to turn into a turnout by banal forging a signature in the protocol for issuing ballots.
If you came to the polls and spoiled the ballot, in fact, having voted against everyone, then, first, your vote and your ballot can no longer be used for other purposes. And secondly, the election commission will be obliged to reflect your spoiled ballot in the final protocol! Moreover, twice, first in the number of ballots issued, and then in the number of ballots that were declared invalid. And this fixation is fundamentally important, since the election commission will be obliged to announce this fact. And if we are announced that more than 50% of the protocols were declared invalid, then this immediately makes the government illegitimate, since the fact that the majority of the population does not recognize it is recorded in the final protocol.
And this already gives the population the moral right to declare these elections illegal from the point of view of the people and demand their cancellation and new elections. And if the current government refuses, then this can already be considered as an illegal attempt to seize power, since according to the current Constitution of the Russian Federation, Article 3, paragraph 1, the bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power in the Russian Federation is its multinational people. But if, during the elections, with a high turnout, the candidates could not get the majority of votes, this means that the people refused to give them power.
But if you did not come to the polls, then this means that you do not care who will rule you.
That is, the main advantage of a spoiled ballot instead of no-show is that this fact will be reflected in the final protocol and may already serve as a basis for further actions. In addition, a large number of ballots that are spoiled by the voters themselves complicates the widespread scheme of falsification of results, when ballots for unnecessary candidates are deliberately spoiled at the time of counting the votes. It also makes it difficult to throw in “left” ballots, since with a high turnout, the total number of votes may exceed the number of voters in a given precinct, which cannot be.
Therefore, the only option for protest voting in the absence of worthy candidates can only be a spoiled ballot, on which, for example, you can write a lot of statements about the current government, including obscene ones, since it is becoming more and more difficult to find others.
Author: Dmitry Mylnikov
