Need for Election Reforms in India

As per the Indian Constitution, India is a Union of States and the power is distributed between the Centre Government and the State Governments. The Constitution of India provides for the electoral process, according to which the election of President, Vice-President, Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies are conducted by the Election Commission of India and other elections are conducted by the State Election Commission. The general election for Lok Sabha in India is a gigantic exercise.  It is said that holding general elections in India is equal to holding elections simultaneously for countries like Europe, United States, Canada and Australia all put together.  Statistically, the number of voters in India is in excess of 800 million (80 crores).

India has many national level and state level registered political parties. If we examine the Constitutions of various major political parties in India, they commit themselves to the objective of well-being of the people and allegiance to the Constitution of India. They also commit to uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. However, some political parties focus on specific sections of society or regional identity too.

Whereas, when it comes to the functioning part of the political parties during electioneering for the formation of the state governments and central governments, rampant violations of the basic spirit of constitution do happen which jeopardizes free and fair elections? These violations are of many kinds and generally pertain to questionable funding of elections, exorbitant election expenditure, unethical publicity, personal allegations and counter allegations, use of unaccounted money, offering liquor to lure voters, paid news etc. etc. During elections, seizure of huge amount of unaccounted cash and liquor is a common phenomenon. In the past many politicians have admitted violating election law to influence voters through payments in the form of cash, goods, or services. Even the party manifestos announce before the elections promise proposals to offer freebies if voted to power. Communal & hate speeches and  undignified abuses are normal during election campaigning which affects peace and harmony. There are many examples when the political parties openly focus on a particular group, religious & linguistic region or sections of the population to divide society in different segments and gain votes. As a consequence, important national issues like poverty, unemployment, development, terrorism etc. get sidelined. Sometimes internal security too gets threatened as political parties instigate violence between various factions. As an example of the gravity of the situation, it has came to light that more than 30% of members of Indian Parliament of the 16th Lok Sabha faced serious criminal charges as per the analysis done by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

In order to remove the anomalies various studies have advocated a need for urgent electoral reforms in India. Some of the major reforms which can be considered are;

State Funding of Elections

With an objective to eliminate outside influence of vested interests on policies of the elected governments, it is proposed that the government extends the financial assistance to political parties for participating in elections. This will also help in curtailing flow of unaccounted black money and muscle power during elections as well as in curtailing the levels of corruption in public life.

Compulsory Voting

The voting in elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies are optional in India, but it is compulsory in 33 countries of the world including Brazil, Australia, Egypt, etc. The Gujarat Local Authorities Law (Amendment) Act 2009, has made voting compulsory in local bodies election.

Campaigning through Electronic Media

Huge rallies and road shows are generally organized by all political parties during election campaigning to attract the voters towards a particular party or candidate. This should be totally stopped and in place, campaigning through electronic media and national television channels should be considered. This will save precious resources and time of public as well as political parties from unproductive wastage.

Bringing Political Party under RTI Act

In 2013, Central Information Commission (CIC) held that National Political Parties (NPP) are public authorities within the meaning of Sec 2(h) of RTI Act and directed them to appoint public information officer to provide necessary information as required by the citizens.

However, all the national political parties had defied the direction of CIC on the ground that they are not public authorities within the meaning of RTI Act.

Financial Restriction on Spending

In order to provide level playing field imposing the official limits on election expenditure is proposed. The candidates rely almost completely on unaccounted cash from undisclosed donors which negates the transparency initiatives of the EC.

The present government has brought down the limit to Rs. 2,000/- for the political donations from undisclosed sources from earlier limit of Rs. 20,000/- which is a welcome step but not a foolproof step. In place 100% transparency is needed in political funding.

Voting Rights for Prisoner’s

According to a SC judgment, prisoner’s are second-class citizens and therefore it is necessary to exclude their polluting influence from the sanctity of democratic process. It is criticized on the account that there is no-offence/ sentence based classification. It does not distinguish between prisoners, under-trials and those in lawful custody.

Use of Aadhaar

The Aadhaar no. has the potential to resolve the issue of migration and thus avoiding duplication. It makes possible to enroll a person in one polling station and simultaneously remove his name from a different polling station. Currently, this process is very cumbersome, giving rise to multiple voter cards for a single person.

It will also facilitate easy automatic incorporation of minors in the electoral rolls, once they turn 18 years age..

Paid News

It is basically the commercialization of news content for revenue generation by print/electronic media. It is essentially an advertisement which is disguised as professional news and published in media with the purpose of misleading the general public.

EC wants the paid news to be made electoral offence with not less than 2 years of imprisonment so that such individuals are disqualified from contesting elections.

Simultaneous Elections to State Assemblies and Lok Sabha

Administrative issues arising out of frequent and successive elections such as the provision of Model Code of Conduct comes into play. The cost of election has also gone up along with issues such as communalism, caste conflicts, crony capitalism, etc.

This is a welcome idea to use the limited resources better. The present government has thrown the idea open for discussion the issue regarding holding simultaneous elections to state assemblies and Lok Sabha which is finding favour in general public but the political class has to agree on the matter.

Raising Security Deposit by candidates 

To avoid non serious candidates from contesting elections, the amount of security deposit should be  enhanced.

Restriction on contesting election from more than one constituency

A candidate should not be eligible to contest election from more than one parliamentary or assembly constituencies as if the candidate wins from more than one constituency, he/she has to vacate one seat resulting in re-conducting fresh election for such vacated seat.

Provisions on Death of candidate

No election should be countermanded on the death of a contesting candidate. Suitable time limit can be given to party for a re-nomination in place of the candidate who dies before election.

The above measures if considered by the election commission as well as political parties, India can see in future a much cleaner politics and better compliance to the spirit of Indian Constitution.

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