Final Word from Friday, June 14, 2002
In one of its lesser-known statements, al-Qaeda said after the attack on the World Trade Center that all those killed were legitimate victims because they had supported the evil U.S. government with their election votes. Few opinion leaders would agree with the argument that by participating in elections, voters are in essence validating a country's existing (bad) political system. Vladimír Železný of TV Nova, for example, says that only if they vote do people gain the right to criticize their government. It's not uncommon for public figures to urge people to go to the polls, but this time in the CR the get-out-to-vote call has been unusually self-serving and has been primarily aimed at mobilizing voters either for or against Václav Klaus. To a great extent, these elections have become a referendum on the Klausian political system.