The 2025 General Election race is nearly run. The time for politicians to argue who is the best candidate for the job is running out, and tomorrow the voters have their turn.

With liberal democracy under assault all over the world, voting has never been more important. Bermuda’s voters have the opportunity to make a measured decision as to who should lead them, and it is important that they grasp the nettle.

It is tempting these days to want to turn away from the news and politics. At times, it can seem overwhelming. But that is why, now more than ever, leadership will matter, and Bermuda’s leaders must know that they are representing an active and engaged electorate that will hold them accountable. But that can happen only if the voters cast their ballots.

It is also true that this General Election is perhaps the most confused the island has experienced in many decades.

For almost all voters, the likelihood of there being four candidates on the ballot, most of them credible, will be a new experience.

That fact alone demonstrates a dissatisfaction with politics as usual, and it is incumbent on whoever is elected tomorrow to take those concerns seriously and to consider how better to make our system of parliamentary democracy work. Regardless of who gets what votes, that more than 100 candidates are running for office shows there is a desire for change.

It is also a sign of a healthy democracy, and that is to be celebrated.

However, that does not mean it is a perfect democracy. Change is needed, not least in the long-overdue implementation of absentee ballots for overseas students. David Burt, the Premier, did tremendous harm when he called the General Election for February 18 and denied young people the chance to vote, many of them for the first time.

From 2003 until 2017, there was an unwritten commitment from the island’s leaders that general elections would be held in university holidays, at least until an absentee ballot was devised and implemented. Mr Burt broke that commitment in October 2020, and seemingly got away with it, perhaps because there was so much uncertainty at that time over the Covid-19 pandemic.

Possibly emboldened by that, he has done it again, but this time he has come in for heavy and justified criticism. Taking away the vote from Bermuda’s youngest voters cannot be justified.

The promise of an absentee ballot has been made and not kept for more than two decades now. Whoever is elected tomorrow must act to ensure Bermuda’s young voters are never denied the opportunity to exercise their most important civic right.

That’s because voting cannot be taken seriously enough. Until the 1960s, many Bermudians, predominantly but not exclusively Black, were denied the right to choose their government and many dedicated Bermudians fought to change that.

Today, that hard-won right should not be taken for granted and should be exercised.

More broadly, this is a time to remember that elections are not held in a vacuum. Who voters elect has a powerful impact on how everyone lives their lives. The administration of everything from schools to healthcare to garbage collection depends on the quality of the leaders elected, and for those who may end up in Opposition, the importance of holding those in power to account.

These are uncertain times for the world and Bermuda. The United States, Bermuda’s closest and largest neighbour, is going through a period of turmoil at a time when the world is more violent and fractured than it has been since the Second World War.

The era of liberal democracy and a rules-based economic order appears to be waning, and there are many who seem to relish a period of great power rivalry, both politically and economically.

Bermuda is only a small player in this with little ability to control the events that may shape its destiny. That makes the need for wise and measured leadership all the more important, and also requires that the leaders of the country, while they differ on policy, share the same values.

Those values begin with a belief in democracy and the importance of rule of law.

Tomorrow is the time to cast your vote, not just for a political candidate, but for a system, which while imperfect and always seeking to improve, remains the best form of government available to us.

• Comments are closed on political content until February 19 to stem the flow of purposefully inflammatory and litigious comments during the General Election cycle. Users who introduce extreme partisan comments into other news content will be given a two-week timeout