Ali Bongo Ondimba Quotes

The American public should simply accept no distractions. In our democracy, it is our duty to hold our elected leaders accountable. We do it at the ballot box.

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.

If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work - because if they don't, they won't be around the next time the ballot box is open.

Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust.

Very little is dependable in the politics of a going democracy except the people's conviction that one world-saver at a time is enough.

We are a democracy, and we get the leaders we deserve because we elect them.

Political positions do not belong to the officeholder; they belong to the people that place us in office.

Every voter has a right to criticise a government and comment on its functioning.

I never miss a vote; I think that's the power of the people. A lot of people fought and died for us to have votes, for women to have votes in particular - your vote is your one weapon.

Democracy is a daring concept - a hope that we'll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.

All the blood is drained out of democracy - it dies - when only half the population votes.

And they understand that to be an effective member of a democracy, you have to accept responsibility.

We believe democracy cannot be imposed from outside in any society. Democracy is the expression of a sovereign people.

Voting is the foundational act that breathes life into the principle of the consent of the governed.

After all, I have spent the better part of my adult life insisting that government be open... that government be accessible... and that government be held accountable to people who voted us into office.

But in the end our government usually - not unfailingly - is responsive to the people; and usually - not always - will try to do what is right.

The most powerful thing we own is our vote.

I know how the American people care for that democratic principle. They want to see their vote respected. As we in Haiti want to see the vote of the people respected.

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

International institutions ought to be, as the national ones in democratic countries, established by the peoples and for the peoples.

It is the healthiest thing in a democracy when the people who are elected exert power.

The fact that a man is to vote forces him to think.

It is the role of the government to do what the people want to be done.

Voting is the first duty of democracy.