<RANDOM_THOUGHT>
I am neither a linguist, nor do I care much for politics, but when ever I think about the events scheduled for this nation in January, the term 'selection' rather than 'election' comes to my mind. Infact, I don't get democracy (as practiced in Pakistan) at all. Whoever devised the whole democracy/voting process probably wasn't an internet user (umm.. yea… hmmm).
As far as I'm concerned, if I am provided with a set of choices, and have to select the one I hate the least, I'd rather opt out of the whole fiasco by NOT voting for anyone. That's a 0 vote… for each such 0 vote, there will probably be two +1 votes. So if 90% of the nation doesn't like any of the candidates, the worst that they can do (besides turning into a candidate) is to NOT vote.
I wish the concept of 'democracy' had a negative vote, so I had the option of a +1 vote to 'dig' or a -1 vote to 'bury' whichever 'candidate' I disliked the least/most respectively. It would have been a big motivation for a lazy person like me (and others as well, I hope) to go out and (un)vote the most likely winner. It would have been fun to learn that the MNA in my area was selected by getting -5 votes.
</RANDOM_THOUGHT>
now there’s an original idea. i would like to see the look on benny-zero’s face when she wins the [s]election by -9,439,674 vote to -10,687,545. (that look, of course, would be one of pure joy, cos, as we all know, in democracy winning is EVERYTHING) (unlike in other forms of government)