Coming up in the next few weeks, I have two very important and very different elections that I am required to participate in. The first is the local Bahá’í election for our new local Spiritual Assembly, and the second is the general election, where we will elect a new MP who will form part of the next British Parliament. So I am going to have a look at how these elections work, and why they are so very different.
Elections in the Bahá’í Faith
In the Bahá’í Faith, we have no clergy, we have no priest or bishops, we have no imams or shamans, in effect every single Bahá’í is a lay clergy. So how do we “organise” ourselves? Well in every locality where nine or more Bahá’ís live, we form a local Spiritual Assembly, which is charged by the writings with the responsibility of being:-
“channels of divine guidance, planners of the teaching work, developers of human resources, builders of communities, and loving shepherds of the multitude”
On a practical level the Spiritual Assemblies have a mandate to organise the local Bahá’í community, organising events, maintaining the local fund, assisting with funerals and marriages, providing children’s classes and other core activities of the Faith, they are responsible for activities promoting the growth of the faith at the local level, the enrolment of new friends and where one exists the running of a local Bahá’í Centre.
So anyway back to what I was talking about, elections! Well every April 21st, after sunset, starts the 12 day holy festival of Ridván, and at that time the Bahá’ís in a community will gather and elect the Spiritual Assembly. If there are only nice friends, then an assembly is formed by joint declaration and no election is required. However where there are ten or more friends, the Spiritual Assembly must be formed by an election, but this is not just any election, its an M&S Bahá’í Election.
So what is a Bahá’í Election, well put simply its an election carried out in a prayerful atmosphere, there are no nominations, no campaigning or soapbox speeches. Every single Bahá’í over 21 in a community is eligible to be, and can be voted for. The ballot paper is simple and has only nine blank spaces.
We are asked to meditate and pray prior to voting, and then we are required to vote for the nine individuals we feel are best qualified to administer the affairs of our community. The qualities such individuals should possess are spelled out quite clearly in the Bahá’í writings. Those participating in the election should consider:-
“the names of only those who can best combine the necessary qualities of unquestioned loyalty, of selfless devotion, of a well-trained mind, of recognized ability and mature experience.”
There is no need for majorities, and its simply a case of the nine individuals whom recive the highest number of votes who will serve on the Spiritual Assembly. Now because every Bahá’í in a locality is available to be selected, people who have the qualities the writings talk about tend to be elected, rather than someone who has run for office due to their ego.
Of course this system is impractical at anything other than a local level, for the election if our national Spiritual Assembly we use a similar method of election, but this is indirect. Each country is divided into Units, where the Bahá’ís of that area will nominate an individual to go along to National Convention and essentaly form an electorial collage whom then elect the national Spiritual Assembly, where once again, any Bahá’í over the age of 21 living in that country can be elected. For the election of the world governing body, the electoral college is made up of the various national Spiritual Assemblies, so the administrative order of the Faith, is entirely elected from from the grassroots right to the very top.
The whole emphasis of the Bahá’í electoral system is to bring forth leaders who possess qualities of selflessness, intellectual capacity and wisdom.
So What About Parlimentary Elections
On May 6th everyone in the UK have the chance to vote in a general election. The UK electorial system is not a single election accross the country to decide the government, nor is it a system of proportional representation, common in the rest of Europe.
Rather it is a series of local elections, where we will have the chance to elect a person to represent us in Parliament. The list of prospective MPs are all nominated and have chosen to run for office. All the ballot papers have the candidates party affiliation on them. So right from the start its immediatly different from the Bahá’í system and its immediately partisan just by design of the ballot papers.
In a way its a nice system because we are supposed to focus on picking a local representative whom we feel can do the job right, and because the constituencies are nicely sized, we all have the opportunity to learn enough about our perspective MPs to make and informed decision about if they have the right qualities or not.
But it doesn’t work like that, these elections are less and less local these days and are fought more on a national level by slick PR men, and at the same time personal affiliations to parties tend to be pretty entrenched regardless of a perspective MPs suitability for the role. It tends to be that whom you vote for, is set by where you were born, what job you do, where you live, your educational level etc, which to me is pretty silly, and this gives rise to so “safe-seats”, constituencies where the odds of a swing away from one party is about as likely as the turkeys voting for Christmas. I live in a “safe-seat” and its been said that the party currently holding it would win even if their prospective MP was Pol Pot!
Sounds silly but that’s sort of the point, elections in this country are so very very partisan, and are becoming more about national issues than local issues, and are being managed more and more from London than they are localy. In fact, in my constituency the two major parties have parachuted in hand-picked candidates, despite the presence of suitable locals. Ok so one of the parachuted candidates lives in Hexham, and the other went to school here. Nonetheless they are essentially unknown here and we have not had an adequate time to get to know them and discover if they have the suitable qualities to be our representative.
But the worst part of it is the campaigning, which seems to concentrate mostly on saying how much worse the other parities are, and how bad things will be if anyone else but they are in power. Its not all all nice, and it gets nasty dirty and sometimes just plain distasteful. Today I was watching the BBC News at One, and they were interviewing spokesmen for the three major parties and it was absolutely dreadful, they were simply throwing accusations at each other and it was all about mud slinging rather than the issues, and they are focusing so much on minor details. Even the fella from the BBC was getting annoyed with it and was almost shouting at them to just be straightforward and give an honest answer about their policies rather than simply slagging off the other parties.
And this is being replicated at the local level, on the local news last night there was an interview with five perspective MPs whom are standing in my constituency and it was all mudslinging and accusations about the other parties national policies rather than local issues. I mean come on the Metro is in desperate need of renovation, Pilgrim Street is literately falling apart, applications for renewable energy sites are being knocked back at the planning stages everyday and the former Newcastle Breweries is still a barren wasteland. But the local candidates are more concerned about efficiency savings of 1% in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office!
To me, this system seems like it is designed not to unify us, but to divide us.
So Now What?
Now as a Bahá’í, I am not allowed to get involved in partisan politics, I am supposed to approach the parlimentary elections with the same prayerful attitude as a Bahá’í election, and frankly I find this very difficult, but I will strive to learn more about my prospective MPs and make an informed choice about who to vote for, based not on their party, but on their individual qualities, and trying my best to keep politics out of it. I will be remembering the words of `Abdu’l-Bahá in the The Secret of Divine Civilization, about what we should seek in an exceptional leader, I know we aren’t seeking a leader, but rather a local representative, but I think the advice still works just as well:-
“He should in addition be informed as to the laws and principles, the customs, conditions and manners, and the material and moral virtues characterizing the statecraft of other nations, and should be well versed in all the useful branches of learning of the day, and study the historical records of bygone governments and peoples.”
The general election process could really learn something from the Bahá’í system, we make it work and we make it work very well, and we all have to pitch in to try and heal this broken world. The Universal House of Justice said:-
“[T]he best way Bahá’ís can serve the highest interests of their country and the cause of true salvation for the world, is to sacrifice their political pursuits and affiliations and wholeheartedly and fully support the divine system of Bahá’u'lláh.”
We can change the world by getting involved the unjust system that we currently have, we cannot build a new world built on love, justice and unity using a adversarial partisan system.
So on May 6th I will go out and vote for a prospective MP based on my personal judgement about the merits of the nominated individuals and whom I feel has the ability to make the more valuable contribution to society. Mind you saying that, from what I do know of them, I am positive that most of them have the best intentions at heart for this constituency and would strive to do their best in the job, I really do not doubt that.
God Bless
Michael
This weekend at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, two German women, Gitta Jarant and Anke Anusic were arrested at the check-in desk with the body of Curt Willi Jarant, a 91 year old man, whom it turned out was dead. The women were arrested on suspicion of failing to give notification of a death.
There is a very good example of someone whom passed away and was buried far from his home in the Faith, and thats the case of Shoghi Effendi, the Faiths guardian following the passing of his grandfather ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. When he was visiting London, he fell ill and passed away, and in accordance with the laws of the Faith he was buried in New Southgate Cemetery in North London, me and Lindsay made a pilgrimage there last June which you can read about here.
