Electoral Reforms in India

Electoral Reforms in India

Comprehensive electoral reforms are needed in India primarily to curb the malice of corruption at its fountain head and to enthuse among citizens, the elements of politicisation – both aimed at enriching the democratic content in elected bodies.

Elections are the foundation stone on which effective functional democracy of any country operates. They constitute the signpost of democracy. They are the medium through which the values, beliefs and attitude of the people towards their political environment are reflected. Elections grant people a government and in turn government has the constitutional right to govern those who elect it. Elections provide an opportunity to the people to express their faith in the government from time to time and change it when the need arises. Elections symbolise the sovereignty of the people and provide legitimacy to the authority of the government. Thus, free and fair elections are indispensable for the success of democracy provided there is no undue influence, favour and pressure of any sought imposed on the elector which may affect his or her choice while exercising franchise. An independent impartial constitutional body is generally formed which is entrusted with the responsibility to conduct free and fair elections. In India, Election Commission under Article 324 is entrusted with the task of superintendence, direction and control of elections.

Evolution of electoral practices

India has opted for parliamentary democracy following the British legacy. Since 1952, the country has witnessed elections to the legislative bodies at both the national as well as state levels. Such elections did manage to usher democracy at the grass root level, but the electoral practices that evolved were largely reflective of the social-political structure prevailing in the country. Electoral system was largely free from at least criminal-money influence till the fourth general elections (1967) though other undesirable influences like caste, religion to sway voters did play their role. The distortions in the working of electoral system in this sense were a development that took place only after 1967. This, to some extent, can be attributed to the fact that single party domination of Congress in both Centre and States came to an end with this election. As electoral foray become more competitive, political parties started utilising undesirable electoral practices for political gains. This unscrupulous tendency multiplied in successive elections to assume monstrous proportion.

It was left to the NN Vohra Committee in 1993 to bring the high level of politicians-criminal nexus to the public domain. Such nexus fructified in the electoral arena through prevalence of malpractices like booth capturing, bogus voting, voter intimidation at increasing level especially in 1980’s and 90’s. Election commission took a timely step by introducing voter ID card and electronic voting machines beginning from early 1990’s which did partially succeed in curtailing the practice.

First past the post system

Electoral system adopted by India is first past the post system in which the candidate who secures maximum vote from the constituency is declared winner. Generally it is seen that 30 percent vote only are sufficient to win the elections. This exemplifies the chances of electoral malpractices to be deployed as even if seventy percent of voters exercise their franchise against the candidate, she or he can win the elections based on the minority support. Appeal to caste and religion can be resorted to for garnering the much needed vote. Monetary influence or criminal intimidation to sway the voters may become the order of the day due to reduced benchmarks to win elections. It has been suggested that India should adopt the system in which a candidate should be declared winner only when one secures more than 50 percent of votes polled. If no one has been able to secure the required number of votes in first round then the second round of polling should be conducted in which two candidates who have secured maximum number of votes would only contest. 

Model Code of Conduct

Over a period of time various reports prepared by committees and commissions like Tarkunde Committee Report (1975), Goswami Committee Report (1990), Indrajit Gupta Committee Report (1998) along with Election Commission of India (ECI), have given several recommendations to the Indian government towards building a comprehensive set of proposals related to electoral reforms. Some of these recommendations have been incorporated in the Model Code of Conduct. In every election, the EC issues a Model Code of Conduct for political parties and the candidates such that the elections are conducted in a free and fair manner.

The Commission circulated its first Code at the time of the fifth general elections, held in 1971. Since then, the Code has been revised from time to time. The Code of Conduct lays down guidelines as to how political parties and candidates should conduct themselves during elections. Representation of People Acts contains the statutes to regulate elections in India. It is essential that the code should be enforced strictly by empowering EC as a rule making authority. This is done under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and Representation of the People (ROP) Act, 1951, instead of the Central Government, who should, however, be consulted by the Election Commission while framing rules.

Decriminalisation of politics

Much still needs to be done to cleanse the electoral process in India hamstrung by so many snags and stultifying factors. Such maladies only encourage the anti-social elements to jump into the electoral fray. In order to take effective steps towards decriminalisation of politics, and to prevent persons with criminal background from becoming legislators, the Commission has made a proposal for disqualifying (from contesting election) a person against whom charges have been framed by a Court for an offence punishable by imprisonment of 5 years or more. Under the existing law (Section-8, ROP Act, 51) there is a disqualification only when a person is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more. This has generally not proved to be effective as cases languish in courts for long period of time.

As a precaution against foisting false cases on the eve of election, it has been suggested that only those cases in which charges are framed six months prior to an election should be taken into account for that election. Rules should also be amended to provide for the use of totalizer for counting of votes at Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) after elections. Using totalizer, it would be possible to take out the results of votes polled in a group of 14 EVMs together as against the present practice of counting vote’s polling station wise. In such a system of counting, the trend of voting in individual polling station areas would not be known. This will prevent intimidation and post election victimization of electors.

Curtailing influence of money

Elections are witnessing increasing use of money power to sway electors. It is taking away the basic essence of democracy as wealthy candidates find it easier to win elections. It can be garnered from the fact that the percentage of crorepati (those having Rs. 10 million or more) Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative is on the rise as per the ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) report.

As per the analysis carried out by ADR of the affidavits that the candidates had submitted to the Election Commission in recently held assembly elections in five states - 35% or 252 of the 690 MLAs elected to the five legislative assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa have criminal background (a rise of 8% from 2007). Further, startling 66% or 457 out of the 690 MLA elected to above mentioned legislative assemblies  are ‘crorepatis,'. In comparison to 2007 Assembly elections, there is over 32 per cent increase in the number of crorepati MLAs winning. ADR in analysis of MP of 15^th Lok Sabha(LS) has found that 33 percent of candidates who declared assets worth more than 5 Crore won the elections. On the other hand only 0.5 percent of candidates with assets less than 10 lakh succeeded in entering lower house. Elections seem to be highly influenced by money power of candidates. In present LS 315 MPs are declared ‘crorepatis’ a jump of 102 percent from last LS. Criminal cases are pending against 162 MPs in 15^th LS out of which 72 MPs are facing charges of serious nature. In Rajya Sabha it was found that 129 out to 224 MPs analysed are ‘Crorepatis’. It is to be observed that the figures compiled in the report are only from the declared assets of the candidate. Money influence is also reflected in increasing instances of cash seizure during recently concluded elections. Compilation of such data has been made possible due to June 2002 order of the EC on the direction of the Supreme Court under Article 324 that each candidate must submit an affidavit regarding the information of his/her criminal antecedents; assets (both movable and immovable) of self and those of spouses and also that of dependents; and qualification at the time of filing his/her nomination papers for election to the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies.

The limits on expenditure in elections are applicable to candidates and not to political parties as per the law. This creates a peculiar situation as candidates may root election expenditure through the political party to which they are affiliated. Contribution to political parties need to be stringently regulated as presently political parties are not required to keep detailed record of donations where sum contributed is less than Rs 20,000. As per the study by National Election Watch (NEW) all major parties receive 80-90% of their total contributions from donations of less than Rs 20,000. In order to promote transparency in funding of parties it is essential that law be updated to provide for elaborate recording of all receipts of donations. The NN Vohra Committee (1998) observed that, “It goes without saying that money power and muscle power go together to vitiate the electoral process and it is their combined effect which is sullying the purity of electoral contests and effecting free and fair elections.” It went on to recommend state funding of elections as one of the key measure required to curtail money influence. On questions of whether expenditure of political parties should be included in the overall ceiling of election expenditure of candidate and banning of corporate from funding political parties, the committee said that these questions should be seriously examined by the parliament and decision should be taken according to the collective wisdom of parliament. These questions have become even more pertinent now after the political-corporate nexus was exposed in 2G, Reliance Krishna- Godavari scam etc.

Paid News

Due to the fall in ethics of journalism, ‘paid news’ has emerged as a significant electoral malpractice to sway the voters. Advertisement of candidate is deceived as news item to gain undue influence in elections and cash is exchanged to plant such news in leading newspapers. The Commission has proposed amendment in the Representation of People Act, 1951, to provide therein that publishing and abetting the publishing of `paid news’ for furthering the prospect of election of any candidate or for prejudicially affecting the prospect of election of any candidate be made an electoral offence punishable with minimum two years of imprisonment.

Reforms in political parties

Major political parties take into consideration the monetary position of candidates while granting tickets. Much needed inner party democracy in political parties, will assist in curtailing this practice at least to some extent. EC has been insisting for long that organization election in political parties should be made compulsory. Income tax exemption for donations should be given only to those political parties which contest election and win seats in the Parliament/State Legislature to prevent mushrooming of political parties with ulterior motive of only claiming tax exemptions. Sec 29 A of Representation of People Act, 1951 provides for registration of political parties but there is no explicit provision for deregistration of political parties even if they are not active and are not contesting elections for long. Election Commission of India has been demanding for empowering itself for the purpose so as to reduce administrative burden of maintaining records of such parties.  

Strengthening laws dealing with electoral offences

Undue influence and bribery at elections are electoral offences as per Sections 171B and 171C, respectively, of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). These offences are non-cognizable offences, with punishment provision of one year’s imprisonment, or fine, or both.  Under Section 171-G, publishing false statement in connection with elections with the intent to affect the result of an election, is punishable with fine only. These punishments were provided as far back as in 1920. Considering the gravity of the offences under the aforesaid sections in the context of free and fair elections, the punishments under all the four sections has been proposed by ECI to be enhanced and made cognizable. As per the existing law, election petition (EP) can be filed only for challenging an election of the returned candidate (winner). If a defeated candidate has indulged in corrupt practice; there is no provision for election petition against such candidate. ECI recommendation should be looked into that the law be amended to provide for filing of EP in cases of commission of corrupt practice by a losing candidate as well.

Summing Up

OVER the years, the Election Commission has conducted a number of laudable electoral reforms to strengthen democracy and enhance the fairness of elections. But, our system is still plagued by many vices. To win votes, political parties resort to foul methods and corrupt practices. The EC must be entrusted with powers to punish the errant politicians who transgress and violate the electoral laws. However, the success of reforms will largely depend upon the will of the political parties to adhere to and implement such reforms. An independent media and an enlightened public opinion have no substitute in pushing through electoral reforms. The much talked about provision of ‘negative voting’ in the EVM with a column `none of the above’ to enable a voter to reject all candidates if they so desire has also emerged as potential reform with backing from certain civil society organizations that can be explored to strengthen electoral process in the country.