In a democracy, citizens have the power to make decisions deemed vital for the very functioning of democracy: by participating in elections they select their political representatives. But people use various criteria when deciding which party and/or candidate(s) they will vote for in democratic elections. Sometimes, they make their decision on the basis of morally objectionable forms of prejudice (such as racism, ethno-linguistic or ethno-religious nationalism, or sexism) and deliberately discriminate against candidates for elective office whose identity traits (such as skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender, or mother tongue) they detest or simply dislike.
The aim of the present paper is to focus on electoral discrimination in multilingual societies. It argues that, in such a specific context, the existence of a communication gap between citizens and candidates speaking different languages may justify the voters’ choice to discriminate against the candidates whose language they hardly, if at all, understand.
