Chapter - 4 Electoral Politics

ELECTION

Mechanism by which people can choose their representatives at regular intervals and change them if they wish to do so. This mechanism is called election.
In an election the voters make many choices:

• They can choose who will make laws for them.
• They can choose who will form the government and take major decisions.
• They can choose the party whose policies will guide the government and law making.

Minimum conditions of a democratic election:

• First, everyone should be able to choose. This means that everyone should have one vote and every vote should have equal value.
• Second, there should be something to choose from. Parties and candidates should be free to contest elections and should offer some real choice to the voters.
• Third, the choice should be offered at regular intervals. Elections must be held regularly after every few years
• Fourth, the candidate preferred by the people should get elected.
• Fifth, elections should be conducted in a free and fair manner where people can choose as they really wish.

Is it good to have political competition?

DEMERITS

• It creates a sense of disunity and ‘factionalism’ in every locality.
• Different political parties and leaders often level allegations against one another.
• Parties and candidates often use dirty tricks to win elections.

MERIT

• Political competition may cause divisions and some ugliness, but it finally helps to force political parties and leaders to serve the people.

OUR SYSTEM OF ELECTIONS

General Election

-Elections are held in all constituencies at the same time, either on the same day or within a few days.

By-Election

-Sometimes election is held only for one constituency to fill the vacancy caused by death or resignation of a member.

Electoral Constituencies

-The country is divided into different areas for purposes of elections. These areas are called electoral constituencies.
The voters who live in an area elect one representative.

For Lok Sabha elections, the country is divided into 543 constituencies. The representative elected from each constituency is called a Member of Parliament or an MP.

Each state is divided into a specific number of Assembly constituencies. In this case, the elected representative is called the Member of Legislative Assembly or an MLA.

Panchayat and Municipal elections

Each village or town is divided into several ‘wards’ that are like constituencies. Each ward elects one member of the village or the urban local body.

Reserved Constituencies

Some constituencies are reserved for people who belong to the Scheduled Castes [SC] and Scheduled Tribes [ST]. Currently, in the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 47 for the Scheduled Tribes.

Local bodies are now reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) as well.

Similarly, one-third of the seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for women candidates.

Voter’s List

In a democratic election, the list of those who are eligible to vote is prepared much before the election and given to everyone. This list is officially called the Electoral Roll and is commonly known as the Voters’ List.

• In our country, all the citizens aged 18 years and above can vote in an election. Every citizen has the right to vote, regardless of his or her caste, religion or gender.
• It is the responsibility of the government to get the names of all the eligible voters put on the voters’ list. As new persons attain voting age names are added to the voters’ list.

Nomination of candidates

• Anyone who can be a voter can also become a candidate in elections. The only difference is that to be a candidate the minimum age is 25 years.
• Political parties nominate their candidates who get the party symbol and support. Party’s nomination is often called party ‘ticket’.
• Every person who wishes to contest an election must fill a ‘nomination form’ and give some money as ‘security deposit’.
• Every candidate must make a legal declaration, giving full details of:
  1. Serious criminal cases pending against the candidate;
  2. Details of the assets and liabilities of the candidate and his or her family;
  3. Education qualifications of the candidate. This information must be made public. This provides an opportunity to the voters to make their decision based on the information provided by the candidates.

Election Campaign

• It is necessary to have a free and open discussion about who is a better representative, which party will make a better government or what is a good policy. This is what happens during election campaigns.
• Such campaigns take place for a two-week period between the announcement of the final list of candidates and the date of polling. During this period the candidates contact their voters, political leaders address election meetings and political parties mobilize their supporters. This is also the period when newspapers and television news are full of election related stories and debates.
• Successful slogans given by different political parties in various elections are Garibi Hatao (by Indira Gandhi), Save Democracy (by Janata party), Land to the Tiller (west bengal assembly election), ‘Protect the Self-Respect of the Telugus’ (by N. T. Rama Rao).
• According to our election law, no party or candidate can:
  1. Bribe or threaten voters;
  2. Appeal to them in the name of caste or religion;
  3. Use government resources for election campaign;
  4. Spend more than Rs. 25 lakhs in a constituency for a Lok Sabha election or Rs. 10 lakhs in a constituency in an Assembly election. If they do so, their election can be rejected by the court even after they have been declared elected.
• All the political parties in our country have agreed to a Model Code of Conduct for election campaigns. According to this, no party or candidate can:
  1. Use any place of worship for election propaganda;
  2. Use government vehicles, air-crafts and officials for elections;
  3. Once elections are announced, Ministers shall not lay foundation stones of any projects, take any big policy decisions or make any promises of providing public facilities.

Polling and counting of votes

On Election day every person whose name is on the voters’ list can go to a nearby ‘polling booth’, situated usually in a local school or a government office and cast their vote.

• Nowadays electronic voting machines (EVM) are used to record votes. The machine shows the names of the candidates and the party symbols. Independent candidates too have their own symbols, allotted by election officials. Al the voter must do is to press the button against the name of the candidate she wants to give her vote.
• Once the polling is over, all the EVMs are sealed and taken to a secure place. A few days later, on a fixed date, all the EVMs from a constituency are opened and the votes secured by each candidate are counted.
• The candidate who secures the highest number of votes from a constituency is declared elected.

Newspapers and television reports often refer to allegations. Such as:

• Inclusion of false names and exclusion of genuine names in the voters’ list;
• Misuse of government facilities and officials by the ruling party;
• Excessive use of money by rich candidates and big parties;
• Intimidation of voters and rigging on the polling day.

Independent Election Commission

In our country elections are conducted by an independent and very powerful Election Commission (EC). The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) is appointed by the President of India. But once appointed, the Chief Election Commissioner is not answerable to the President or the government.
EC takes decisions on every aspect of conduct and control of elections from the announcement of elections to the declaration of results.

• It implements the Code of Conduct and punishes any candidate or party that violates it.
• During the election period, the EC can order the government to follow some guidelines, to prevent use and misuse of governmental power to enhance its chances to win elections, or to transfer some government officials.
• When on election duty, government officers work under the control of the EC and not the government.
• When election officials come to the opinion that polling was not fair in some booths or even an entire constituency, they order a repoll.

Popular Participation

1) People’s participation in election is usually measured by voter turnout figures. Turnout indicates the per cent of eligible voters who cast their vote.
2) In India the poor, illiterate and underprivileged people vote in larger proportion as compared to the rich and privileged sections. This contrasts with western democracies.
3) Common people in India attach a lot of importance to elections. They feel that through elections they can bring pressure on political parties to adopt policies and programs favorable to them.
4) The interest of voters in election related activities has been increasing over the years. One out of every seven voters is a member of a political party.

The outcome of India’s elections speaks for itself:

1. The ruling parties routinely lose elections in India both at the national and state level. In fact, in every two out of the three elections held in the last fifteen years, the ruling party lost.
2. In the US, an incumbent or ‘sitting’ elected representative rarely loses an election. In India about half of the sitting MPs or MLAs lose elections.
3. Candidates who are known to have spent a lot of money on ‘buying votes’ and those with known criminal connections often lose elections.
4. Barring very few disputed elections, the electoral outcomes are usually accepted as ‘people’s verdict’ by the defeated party.

Challenges to free and fair elections

1) Candidates and parties with a lot of money may not be sure of their victory but they do enjoy a big and unfair advantage over smaller parties and independents.
2) In some parts of the country, candidates with criminal connection have been able to push others out of the electoral race and to secure a ‘ticket’ from major parties.
3) Some families tend to dominate political parties; tickets are distributed to relatives from these families.
4) Very often elections offer little choice to ordinary citizens, for like each other both in policies and practice.
5) Smaller parties and independent candidates suffer a huge disadvantage compared to bigger parties.