Important elections today

TODAY'S mayoral and municipal elections are indeed of great significance. A successful election would bear out the fact that we might just have managed to get out of the corner that we were in, with both democracy and politics in the limbo, and on our way to full democratic governance with people's representatives in control.
This is a test case for several institutions; and there are lots of expectations - from the administration, the election commission and the political parties. For the administration we want to see how well it is able to acquit itself in providing a secure environment for today's election - the election commission has the equally heavy responsibility to ensure that its officials do not brook transgressions of any kind - and on the political parties devolves the responsibility to help both these agencies to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections.
A successful election means more than merely the casting of votes. A good election is also about being able to choose quality people of one's own free will. And we are all waiting eagerly to see whether or not we will get good and honest people as our representatives to run the local bodies.
The country has been demanding qualitatively better candidates for public offices. Certain criteria had also been laid down to keep out people with questionable antecedents from putting themselves up as candidates. But regrettably, as reported, persons with dubious background have managed to slip through. And in many cases the EC could not manage to get the candidates from giving all necessary information as per its requirement. One could say that people's wish to know all the necessary particulars about the candidates was somewhat thwarted because of this, but happily, this being local elections, the voters are expected know the ins and outs of all the candidates. It is therefore very important that each and every voter makes informed choices while casting his or her vote.
Like the hustings that were conducted peacefully in the run up to the polls, without any untoward incident - quite a change from what we have been used to - we expect that the voters will also be able to cast their votes without being under any duress from any quarters.
Prudent exercise of people's right to vote, one hopes, will play a significant part in setting a healthy trend for the forthcoming elections.