You can't have a healthy democracy without free speech and association, which is why those are generally the first freedoms curbed by authoritarian regimes looking to ensure their longevity. This is not to say that Tsunamy is trying to create an authoritarian regime here, but rather to say that nothing good and healthy will happen to the South Pacific's democracy if freedoms vital to sustaining democracy are curtailed here.

Ultimately, it appears to be a small minority of people who even believe anything improper is going on with political parties. They see "vote stacking" -- which, in times past, meant coordinating to decide an election with people from outside a region, not simply coordinating with your regionmates regarding elections -- where most others just see democracy working the way it normally does.

Nothing that is happening here hasn't always happened, it's just that when it happened in the past it happened in relative secret, it usually involved bringing in people from outside the region to become citizens and vote, and the people who did it usually denied it. Transparency and the fact that parties are relying exclusively on people actually in the South Pacific rather than foreign interlopers are positive developments that should be encouraged.