The ruling Gibraltar Social Democrats party which has been in office for the last 4 years is led by Chief Minister Peter Caruana and claims to have achieved a lot for Gibraltans. Even as it goes on to list its achievements, its main opponents the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party/ Gibraltar Liberal Party coalition led by veteran Joe Bosana, have busied themselves dismissing all the alleged gains made by the GSD at the last election. This recalls the Kenyan scenario where the ODM party has taken out the Presidents promise card from his swearing in, and is now pointing out exactly where he failed to deliver.

Both the Gibraltan parties have put out lists of promises and also gone the extra mile to set out exactly when they expect to have achieved these milestones.

Also featuring on the ballot are the minnows of the election, the Progressive Democratic Party led by the youthful Keith Azopardi. They accept their lowly status and are in effect pleading with the electorate to avoid block voting and leave some seats in the Parliament for them. Their Kenyan parallel would be the Kalonzo Musyoka led ODM-K.

quo vadis

Such are the similarities in the two countries pre-election scenarios. The only major difference is that in the Mediterenean they have independent candidates for the 18 seats of parliament.

Are there any other parallels we can draw between these two states in their election year? Both with links to the United Kingdom, Gibraltar jealously clinging on to her status as a an overseas territory of the UK, and Kenya having cast off the bonds of colonialisms; Gibraltar eager to put as much distance between herself and Spain as possible, while Kenya tries to engage closer ties with her neighbours?

Gilbratar Broadcasting Corporation which runs the local TV station broadcasts a few hours in the evening, opens at 7 pm and closes down at midnight. With so few hours of broadcasting, it has been interesting to see how much time is apportioned to each issue by the main parties in the 15 minute slots they buy up in political party advertisements.

With all the politicking in the media, one would have expected that there would be political rallies similar to those at Nyayo Stadium or Uhuru Park. But in Gibraltar, they behave as if nothing is happening. They know that voting day is today, and even without a public holiday, they will take out sometime to go and vote,nwith minimal disruption to their every day work programs. This is certainly the norm in the developed world where an election is just an event that happens once in while, and is not seen as an epochal event. Sounds Kibakiesque? Remember his repeated admonition that an election takes only one day and that we should be busy developing the nation rather than politicking?

As explained, the major parties in Gibraltar have given their visions and most importantly set out exactly how and when they intend to achieve these milestones. For instance the GSLP/Liberal party promises that it will have cut the top tax rate to 18% by the year 2011 and that the Chief Minister will answer questions from the public every quarter effective February 2008. They even promise to have a budget surplus of £40 million by 2012. Every promise made is justified by an explanation on how the funding for new projects will be raised, and in the case of tax cuts and surpluses, an explanation on what sacrifices or cut backs in social spending will be made.

On its part, the government has been defending its record, showing off what it has achieved in the last 4 years and asking for votes on the promise of even more achievements. As for the miniscule PDP, it campaigns on the premise that Gibraltar needs a moderating voice in parliament, accepting already that is will not win control of government.

Can we draw parallels to the Kenya campaigns? I think so. We have Raila's ODM as the main opposition in the elections to the Kibaki government, whilst Kalonzo's ODM-K plays as the dark horse of the elections.

Raila's ODM has been very actively churning out promises to the electorate, declaring itself the party of change and declaring that their opponents in the Kibaki government merely want to maintain the status quo. But if you look at the promises or vision of the ODM, it is just that - a vision. There is no serious attempt at showing how for instance they will achieve a 10% growth or how they will gain the funding for their infrastructure improvement programmes. It is certainly a lie that they can extract extra revenue from Kenyans to fund these without additional taxation. With all their rich vs. poor rhetoric, it is not unlikely that Kenya is set up for another attempt at the Robin Hood strategy. Even with all the promises being made, none of those on offer seems to take much notice of the much heralded Vision 2030; the plan partly driven by the private sector that is the basis of the existing campaign to accelerate Kenya's development.

Gibraltar, Europe as seen from port of Algeciras, Spain

As for the group coalescing around President Kibaki, they are like their counterparts in Gibraltar promising to build on the successes of the past 4 years. Have they told Kenyans what their successes have been and how they will improve on them? This they have neglected to do, and little wonder then that they are open to accusations of preferring the status quo.

For those of us Kenyans who visit or live in the developed world, it is patently clear that the citizens of these countries are not any more intelligent than us, and that our politicians have enjoyed much better education opportunities than many out in the first world. Still, there are miles of difference in the political culture and systems of the two worlds.

When we have debates on politics in Kenyan pubs or even here in cyberspace, there is little decorum, and the dicussion invariably degenerates into tribal slurring and insinuations of phobias and prejudices. This precludes any substantial analysis of the reality surrounding us, and perhaps lends to our non-development. Thus is it that if we ordinary Kenyans with no ambition for political office can fail to question and hold accountable our leaders to the promises they make, and prefer instead to be cheerleaders for failure or hopes of failure, there can but be very little hope for our country's advancement.

Can we re-elect President Kibaki on the basis of his policies rather than on the basis of his personality? Can Raila ascend to State House on the back of promises he makes on change rather than on the basis of the sheep in his leadersheep(ship)? It is sad that even the intellectual class, both that sliver maintained in the halls of our universities and that involved in professional life outside have abdicated their role as a check on government, preferring instead to make excuses for ineptitude and to cheer in the same blind fervour as that evident from the least educated and aware of the population.

As the Gibraltarians go to the polls today, Bossano leads the opinion polls, but sanity still prevails.