With the concerted worldwide endeavour
to advance the process of entry by troops gathering momentum through
implementation of the provisions of the Five Year Plan, it is now opportune
that the believers everywhere give greater attention to strengthen the process
by which Assemblies, national and local, are elected. The manner of
participation by all adult members of the community in these elections is a
distinguishing feature of the System of Bahá'u'lláh; for it is a bounden duty
that confers a high privilege upon every Bahá'í to select, as a responsible
citizen of the new world being brought into existence, the composition of the
institutions having authority over the functioning of the Bahá'í community. In
this regard, indifference and neglect on the part of any believer are alien to
the spirit of the Cause. The friends must strive ceaselessly to avoid being
contaminated with these destructive attitudes, which have inflicted such damage
on the integrity and authority of the institutions of a declining world order. (The
Universal House of Justice, Message to the Baha’is of the World, 25 March 2007)
