Reforming the Electoral System
Saumitra Mohan

The regularity with which Pakistan keeps going back to martial law shows in stark relief the strength of Indian democracy which appears to be taking newer strides with each passing day. One principal reason for the same lies in the strong democratic foundations which are predicated on a very sound and effective electoral system. And our electoral system has been moving from strength to strength since the time of Mr. T. N. Sheshan, the redoubtable Chief Election Commission of the nineties.

But there still remain many issues that need to be attended to fortify the gains already made for further solidifying our democratic base and one such important issue relates to our electoral system. The task of conducting elections in a billion plus country is really humongous and mind-boggling. It requires extra-ordinary preparations coupled with astute management skills.

This becomes more important because these days elections have to be conducted with increasing regularity given the fact that elections to parliamentary, different state assemblies and local bodies including panchayats keep taking their turns to keep the Election Commission of India (ECI) and its cognate state bodies engaged throughout the year. Hence, there is an urgent need for ECI to keep its machinery well-oiled all the time.

As the ECI works through the instrumentality of district administration across the country, myriad election related activities also keep the latter occupied through the year. And as the ECI takes newer initiatives to further sanitize the electoral system in this country resulting in more works, it has increasingly become difficult for the district administration to devote the requisite attention and energy to sundry more pressing functions of administration and development.

Be it the summary or special revision of the electoral roll, preparation of photo identity cards, rationalisation of polling booths, conduct of actual parliamentary/assembly/local body elections or an emergent by-election, the district administration has to contend with one or the other election related work almost throughout the year. Since election-related exercises are serious affairs, one has to devote more than cursory attention which often makes it difficult for the district administration to do justice to the other pressing concerns of development administration.

This is why, there has long been felt an urgent need for a full-fledged set-up including full-time officers and staff members for manning the election section at the district level. It gets really difficult for the District Magistrate who in his capacity as the District Election Officer also has to do different election related work with his regular officers and staff members who should otherwise be devoting their time and energy to the regular assignments. Since, the district administration does not have adequate number of officers and staff, it is forced to fall back on the officers and staff from the line departments who have become increasingly reluctant to part with their officers and staff for election related works.

Many government departments including education, relief, women and child development, PWD, health, and backward classes development departments have issued specific directions from time to time against engaging their officers and staff members in election works for the simple reason that such engagement tells negatively on the normal functioning and performance of these departments, preventing them to do the very basic work which they are meant to do.

For example, the school education department has the largest number of employees in the form of teachers and when these teachers are engaged in election and other works round the year, their basic teaching job really suffers, more so when they happen to be teachers from a single or double teacher schools. And now that the Supreme Court has completely banned such employment of school teachers, it has become further difficult for the district administration.

The district administration is, therefore, finding it increasingly difficult to rope in the services of line department officers and staff for electoral purposes. Even though some permanent staff members have been provided recently, the manpower crunch is a serious problem and the government really needs to ponder over this issue seriously, more so when many of these district offices are already understaffed.

The district administration has to do some real tight-rope walking in this regard, trying to apportion officers and staff among the various tasks it is supposed to accomplish to the satisfaction of all concerned. Be it the preparation of electoral rolls or the management of various poverty alleviation programmes, it has to accomplish all with the same level of efficiency and effectiveness. The poor District Magistrate, even though over-burdened, is still the most important, if not the only, point of interaction and interface for anyone and everyone in the government and he/she is held accountable for any lapse anywhere.

Being a first-past-the-post system where every head counts, where electoral numbers make all the difference in deciding the fate of a candidate in an election, the political parties have generally taken the populist route in this country in their bid to beef up their vote banks. They have often been found shielding the illegal immigrants/aliens who have somehow managed to get themselves registered as a voter in this country.

If we really mean to cleanse the electoral system in this country, such dangerous tendency among political parties should be discouraged and corrective measures need to be taken in all possible ways. We need to have a clearly laid down policy in this regard to pre-empt victimization of genuine citizens of the country.

There has been a talk of issuing identity cards to citizens in the border areas to distinguish the infiltrators from the genuine citizens. There has also been a proposal to grant citizenship to all such illegal voters and start taking all precaution from now on to effectively tackle the immigration menace in this country. Our border security and intelligence gathering have to be more up to mark to ensure this.

ECI has taken a slew of steps in recent times to ensure free and fair elections. This inter alia includes introduction of electronic voting machines, photo identity cards, employment of central para military forces for curbing electoral mal-practices, posting of external election observers, videography and photography of critical electoral processes and events including activities at sensitive polling booths on the eve of actual voting, setting up of permanent EPIC centres, round the year voter registration and more scientific delimitation of electoral constituencies. But still a lot needs to be done to further sanitize the electoral system in the country.

The very fact that EPIC distribution has still not been cent per cent in the country is a further reason to worry about. As the country gets more developed and internet penetration grows in the country, one should also give a serious thought to the concept of ‘on-line voting’. If we can pull it off, it shall not only be cheaper, but shall also be more effective and efficient as that would reduce the need for incurring huge expenses on making electoral arrangements including the deployment of massive polling personnel and para military forces almost every year.

Though electors’ photo identity cards (EPIC) has to a large extent prevented bogus voting, but it is still far from full-proof. Frequent reports of tampering with the cards and recovery of fake EPICs have given the tell-tale hints of the unholy practice that might be existing. Hence, the need for making the EPIC more tamper-proof than it is now. The proposal of implanting some sort of bio-metric identification feature in the EPIC to reduce any scope for tampering or faking EPIC needs to be given a serious thought.

There is also a need for further rationalising the polling booths. Still, the size of many polling booths is more than thousand and the same needs to be cut down to half to make the booth size more manageable. This would allow the completion of the voting process within the scheduled time during an actual voting rather than extending it beyond the stipulated time which has often come to be noticed.

Also, it should be seen to it that there should not be more than one polling booth in the same premises. Location of more than one booth in the same premises makes the task of security forces difficult in the eventuality of a law and order problem. Moreover, often voters have also been found to be at loss locating their booth at such multi-booth premises.

It is with this in mind that ECI introduced the concept of Voter Assistance Booth (VAB) for multi-booth polling premises in the recent assembly elections. This has been taken very well by the people and was a great help to them. However, it was felt by many that the booth was not set-up properly and was often not visible to people. The people manning them need to be properly oriented and motivated before they are sent to do the job.

Also, one feels that such VAB can also be set up across the constituency at regular distance, irrespective of the number of booths in a premise as that would be of greater help to the voters who are not in a position to get such assistance if the premise comprises only one or two booths.

Introduction of alphabetically arranged electoral roll at such VABs has also been a good beginning and should be continued. Such electoral roll should also be there at the Permanent EPIC Centres which should actually be suitably renamed e.g. as Permanent Voter Assistance Centre.

Further steps must also be taken to completely rule out the spectre of booth-jamming and booth capturing. The alleged practice of such a thing as planting dummy candidates and thereby having dummy election agents within the polling booth should also be guarded against.

ECI has taken a right step recently whereby it has stipulated that the election agents of the contesting candidates have to be from within the same polling booth areas and have also to be a registered voter in that particular area. This step was warranted because of the reported induction of imported goons as election agents by some political parties which would plant dummy candidates to have these goons masquerade as election agents within the booth premises thereby making it easier for them to engage in all sorts of illegal activities in favour or against a particular candidate.

The electronic voting machines are still not used in election to the local bodies which should be started immediately as the local body elections are the base upon which is built the edifice of electoral democracy. ECI should ensure that exemplary punishment is meted out to those who are directly or indirectly found to be involved in aiding and abetting electoral mal-practices.

The very fact that it is easier to find out the voting patterns when elections are conducted through the electronic voting machines need to be given a serious thought as this is a retrograde development vis-à-vis the manual system wherein it was difficult to find out the same as the ballot papers of different polling booths were mixed before counting to pre-empt identification of voting patterns and consequent victimization of the voters.

The Election Commission also needs to further tighten the noose on political parties to ensure that they not only adhere to the model code of conduct including sticking to the allowable electoral expenses during an election, but their accounts are also regularly verified and audited to ward against any ill-gotten money having its influence on our electoral system.

Even though ECI has been trying for quite some time to cleanse the system of people with criminal backgrounds/antecedents, the same should be done more effectively to purge the system from such people or their unwholesome influence. Laying down some sort of minimum qualification and experience for contesting candidates should also be given a thought.

One just hopes that some of these measures, if undertaken in right earnest, shall do a world of good to our fledgling democracy. The more we delay, the more disservice we shall be doing to the people of this country at the expense of the democratic traditions and foundations of this country.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.