On Sat­ur­day, mem­bers of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) will vote in an in­ter­nal elec­tion for 17 posts on the par­ty's na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive. The UNC, like its coali­tion part­ner the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP), choos­es its lead­ers by the one-man-one-vote method. All of the ap­prox­i­mate­ly 25,000 peo­ple on the par­ty's mem­ber­ship list are en­ti­tled to cast their bal­lots for their pre­ferred can­di­dates. Vot­ing will take place at cen­tres across the coun­try and, ac­cord­ing to the par­ty's elec­tion of­fi­cials, re­sults will be re­leased with­in hours of the close of polls. The UNC should be ap­plaud­ed for adopt­ing this sys­tem. Car­ry­ing out lead­er­ship elec­tions in the full glare of pub­lic scruti­ny fa­cil­i­tates the ac­count­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy that are so im­por­tant for a healthy de­mo­c­ra­t­ic sys­tem. By mov­ing away from se­cret lead­er­ship nom­i­na­tion and se­lec­tion pro­ce­dures, the UNC-and all the oth­er par­ties in this coun­try that have adopt­ed the sys­tem-have made a sig­nif­i­cant step to­ward the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic ma­tu­ri­ty that is so vi­tal for ad­vance­ment as a na­tion.

One man, one vote means that rank-and-file mem­bers of the par­ty not on­ly have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to vote in a healthy and open elec­toral process, but can of­fer them­selves as can­di­dates, as is the case with this in­ter­nal elec­tion.

This is im­por­tant be­cause the men and women who will be elect­ed to the UNC's na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive will be well po­si­tioned to take on more sig­nif­i­cant lead­er­ship roles-as MPs, coun­cil­lors and chairs of statu­to­ry agen­cies and state boards. Once these can­di­dates are will­ing to con­form with a sys­tem that is sub­ject to wide­spread scruti­ny, the ones with the right mix of skills, qual­i­fi­ca­tions, ex­pe­ri­ence and de­ter­mi­na­tion have a good chance of be­ing recog­nised and cho­sen. One ex­am­ple of how that more open sys­tem works is Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. On the ba­sis of one man, one vote, on Jan­u­ary 24, 2010, she was elect­ed the new leader of the UNC, get­ting an over­whelm­ing 13,932 votes over the 1,359 cast for her clos­est ri­val, par­ty founder Bas­deo Pan­day. This put her in a strong po­si­tion when a snap gen­er­al elec­tion was called a few months lat­er, on May 24, 2010. The new­ly elect­ed UNC leader took the helm of the po­lit­i­cal coali­tion that be­came the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship and was elect­ed prime min­is­ter.

Last Ju­ly, the COP's es­ti­mat­ed 38,000 mem­bers were all en­ti­tled to vote for a new leader in that par­ty's in­ter­nal elec­tion. It was a four-way race which saw Prakash Ra­mad­har emerge vic­to­ri­ous from a field that in­clud­ed Sports Min­is­ter Anil Roberts, at­tor­ney Ver­non De Li­ma and an­i­mal-rights ac­tivist Nali­ni Di­al. From all in­di­ca­tions, the tide may be turn­ing even with­in this coun­try's old­est po­lit­i­cal par­ty, the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment, which has main­tained the tra­di­tion­al del­e­gate sys­tem through­out its more than five decades of ex­is­tence. How­ev­er, just a year ago one of its mem­bers, Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus, pro­posed that the par­ty should con­sid­er the one-man-one-vote method. It met with some op­po­si­tion, but sev­er­al in the par­ty's cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive agreed that all par­ty groups should be con­sult­ed on the mat­ter be­fore a fi­nal de­ci­sion is made. For now, how­ev­er, the fo­cus is on the lead­er­ship race with­in the UNC. There are 65 can­di­dates, in­clud­ing sev­er­al in­cum­bents, cur­rent­ly on the hus­tings. Very much as in a na­tion­al elec­tion, can­di­dates have hit the cam­paign trail with pub­lic meet­ings. Sev­er­al have pub­lished man­i­festos, and the more in­no­v­a­tive are tak­ing ad­van­tage of so­cial-net­work­ing sites to woo vot­ers. There have been a few rough patch­es, some dis­agree­ments and, of course, con­tro­ver­sies-but that is how democ­ra­cy works. On Sat­ur­day, el­i­gi­ble UNC mem­bers will be free to vote for the can­di­dates they be­lieve are best suit­ed to serve on the par­ty's na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive. At the end of the process, may the best men and women win in an elec­tion that is free and fair.