Should illiterate and uneducated people be allowed to vote?

Illiterate refers to the inability to read whereas uneducated refers to people that have not even required the basic requisite education for example in a country like Pakistan, people who have not even earned their matriculation certificate.

The main logic behind not all allowing the illiterate and uneducated people to vote is that people that cannot read show an inability to make the right judgement. Furthermore voting is to give the best for your country. To not be educated would pose a problem for this and lastly voting is a privilege given to those who want to make a positive impact for their country. Those who cannot even make a positive intellectual impact should not have this privilege.

However we should not forget that the right to vote is protected under the constitution which allows us free speech and a voice on who runs the government. Furthermore denying the few their rights would lead us down a slippery slope to total totalitarianism, as once we repress some people’s rights, what stops us from repressing a few more, and a few more, and a few more? The list is probably endless. In the case of a country like Pakistan, whose people are very restless and fed up due to bad governance and corrupt politicians. In a country such as this, to deny the right to vote would probably lead to the French revolution and drive our country on the brink of financial and economic despair.

Who says that only the educated and literate people can judge people better and that’s why only they should be allowed to vote? Most times the uneducated people have a better knowledge about the country’s different politicians and rulers. They are usually street smart and are more capable of surviving in this harsh and cruel world. Furthermore in a democracy every adult person who is over the age of 18 is granted one vote. If the government declares that the uneducated and illiterate people cannot vote then it is violating the basic law of democracy which states that “One Man, One Vote”.

Tehreem Azhar