Operating from a position of principle, rather than emotional support for ‘our’ party

Editor: In the events before, during and after the general elections of December 9th, 2015, I am left wondering a number of things:

Shouldn’t laws be implemented to prevent political parties and their operatives from defacing private and public property with paint?{{more}}

Should we not seek to improve the method through which voters cast their votes?

If the elections were won by the NDP with the same person as supervisor of elections, the same overseas observers and the same persons operating in polling stations, would the NDP and its supporters have accepted them as free and fair?

If bye-elections were to be held in the constituencies being contested in the courts by the NDP with the same supervisor of elections and same procedures as set out in the Representation of the People Act and the NDP wins, would they be free and fair?

Would the NDP and its supporters accept the kind of response it has put forward to elections declared free and fair if the ULP and its supporters acted in the same way to an NDP win?

Is it that if the NDP becomes the government of the country, there will be no more poverty, crime, violence, and the other ills that it criticizes the ULP government for; or would they have the stock response of so much damage was done it is hard to repair?

Is it possible for us to reach a state where supporters of both parties stop justifying things that their leaders and other top officials do that they would otherwise find wrong if they were done by the opposite side?

Can we ever reach a point of operating from a position of principle, rather than emotional support for “our” party?

These are just some thoughts that have played over in my mind as I witness the post-election saga in our country. I hope it makes for a better SVG when all is said and done.

Observing