A country can be said to be democratic only when its elections constitute a real competition among numerous political party-backed and/or independent candidates. Voters need to have a free and informed choice among various policy options and candidates to determine who their post-election representatives will be. Only very few countries are small enough to practice direct democracy in any or all public policy decision-making processes, and it is therefore crucial for most democracies to find ways to organize an effective and democratic system of representation. Political parties and candidates are actors tasked with the electorate’s trust and counted on to perform the representative function of government.
At the basis of such a system, there needs to be an acceptance of the basic human rights and freedoms to speak, organize, stand for election, and hold meetings or publicly-attended campaign rallies without intimidation or threat of arrest. Citizen engagement in and understanding of complex political issues to a large extent depends on the ability of political parties to activate and educate, formulate relevant and demand-driven policy options, and channel public opinion into the electoral and subsequent governing process. Only where parties and their candidates are legally recognized and free to form and function can they fulfill these roles.
