The Election Commission of India deserves full credit for organising the world’s biggest democratic exercise — the lok Sabha poll, in which more than 800 million people will exercise their franchise
India is caught in the election fever, waiting to cast votes for the 16th lok Sabha. The parliamentary poll is one of the most cyclopean phenomenon that any democracy in the modern world has ever witnessed. It is this routine, followed once every five years, that awakes the country as a whole, and the world equally, to the vision of geniuses who sketched and scribbled the Constitution of India.
The first Election Commissioner in 1950 provided for 176 million eligible citizens, mostly unlettered, to cast their votes. Today, the electorate is approximately 800 million. It is the Election Commission of India which enables India to win the unconceivable and prove the implausible in terms of democratic stability.
This general election is historic in more ways than one. While the dominance of the young voter is visible, the significance of this election, in terms of India’s status in the community of nations, will largely depend on the type of Government the voters deliver to the nation.
The ECI deserves commendation for highlighting three goals — providing easier access to electors for service delivery, greater transparency and better election management. It has initiated the electoral process to enable the country of approximately a billion people to give shape to a new Government.
The ECI has issued guidelines for this general election under Article 324 of the Constitution, which has entrusted the Commission with the power of “superintendence, direction and control”. The present stretch of fluid polity has witnessed occasional fissures between the ECI and the political parties over the powers and functions of the commission and the exclusivity of policy matters in the hands of legislators and the Government.
The Supreme Court has sought to restore the status of the ECI and thwart attempts to deride the basic structure of the Constitution. Governments, present and past, have been reluctant to initiate electoral reform to boost the dignity and transparency of the electoral process in India. The enactment to disqualify candidates charged with heinous offences is nowhere on the horizon.
The new measures announced by the Chief Election Commissioner have perhaps gone unnoticed. In the age of information technology, the ECI has tried to increase transparency by uploading on its web portal the affidavits of candidates and electoral roles in PDF form. It will also be webcasting from polling stations. Additionally, electronic voting machines will be tracked and there will be SMS-based poll monitoring.
Two momentous judgements of the Supreme Court deserve to be mentioned here. The first is the July 5, 2013, order directing the ECI to frame guidelines for regulating the contents of election manifesto particularly relating to freebies. The second is the September 13, 2013, verdict which held that if a candidate fails to furnish all the necessary details when filing his nomination paper, even after reminders from the Returning Officer, his nomination paper is fit to be rejected. Accordingly, the ECI has issued guidelines to Returning Officers for strict compliance.
The affidavits are to be displayed on notice boards and made freely available to the general public. While the filing of the affidavit is mandatory, the Commission has also given candidates the option of e-filing their affidavits. This e-filing will help candidates in providing information without any omission.
The most significant examples of the ECI’s prudence are its clarification on affidavits of candidates and accounts of political parties. On February 22, the ECI intimated all recognised national and State political parties that the “details of Bank accounts, assets and liabilities furnished in the affidavit should invariably include the details of all deposits/investments in foreign banks and any other body/institution abroad, and details of all, assets and liabilities in foreign countries.”
While the candidates contesting elections are required to maintain and furnish a separate account of his/her election expenditure, in accordance with Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the ECI has also required all political parties sponsoring candidates during elections “to maintain day to day account for all election campaign expenses and submit the accounts to the Commission within 90 days of lok Sabha elections and 75 days of Assembly elections”.
This should help further the spirit of free and fair elections. It is an exceptionally thoughtful requirement and indubitably reflective of the recent actions of political parties that have displayed a frightening sense of impudence and arrogance. This, in turn, has invited much public indignation.
(The writer is former Chairman of TRAI and Director, Public Interest Foundation. This article is co-authored by Karthika Annapurna)