ELECTORAL POLITICS
Overview
In chapter
Two we have seen that in a democracy it is neither possible nor necessary for
people ot govern directly. The most common form of democracy in our times is
for the people to govern throough their representatives. In this chapter we
will look at how these representatives are elected. We begin by understanding
why elections are necessary and useful in a democracy. We try to understand how
electoral competition among parties serves the people. We then go on ask what
makes an election democratic. The basic idea here is to distinguish democratic
elections from non-democratic elections.
The rest of
the chapter tries to assess elections in India in the light of this yardstick.
We take a look at each stage of electioons, from the drawing of boundaries of
different constituencies to the declaration of results. At each stage we ask
what should happen and what does happen in elections. Towards the end of the
chapter, we turn to an assessment of whether elections in Inida are free and
fair. here we also examine the role of the Election Commission in ensuring free
and fair elections.
BY 10MINUTEGYAN
4.1 WHY EELECTIONS ARE NEEDED IN A DEMOCRACY
Note- the
time is after midnight. An expectant crowd sitting for the past five hours in a
chowk of the town is waiting for its leader to come. The organisers assure and
reassure the crowd that he would be here any moment. The crowd stands up
whenever a passing vehicle comes that way. it arouses hopes that he has come.
The
leader is Mr. Devi Lal, chief of the Haryana Sangharsh Samiti, who was to
address a meeting in karnal on Thursday night. The 76-year-old leader, is a
very busy man these days. His day starts at 8 a.m. and ends after 11 p.m. . . .
he had already addressed nine election meeting s since morning…. been
constantly addressing public meetings for the past 23 months and preparing for
this election.
This newspaper report is about the State assembly electin in Haryana in
19887. The state had been ruled by a Congress party led government since 1982.
Chaudhary Devi lal, then an opposition leader, led a movement called ‘Nyaya
Yodh’ (Struggle for Justice) and formed a new party, Lok Dal. His party joined
other opposition parties t form a front against the Congress in the elections.
In the election campaign, Devi Lal said that if his party won the elections,
his government would waive the loans of farmers and small businessmen. He
promised that this would be the first action of his government.
The people
were unhappy with the existing government. They were also attracted by Devi
Lal’s promise. So, when elections were held, they voted overwhelmingly in
favour of lok Dal and its allies. Lok Dal and its partners won 76 out of 90
seats in the State Assembly. Lok Dal alone won 60 seats and thus had a clear
majority in the Assembly. The Congress could win only 5 seats.
Once the
election results were announced, the sitting Chief Minister resigned. The newly
elected Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAS) of Lok Dal chose Devi Lal as
their leader. The Governor invited Devi Lal to be the new Chief election
results were declared, he became the Chief Minister. As soon as he became the
Chief Minister, his Government issued a Government Order waiving the
outstanding loans of small farmers, agricultural labourers and small
businessmen. his pary ruled the State for four Years. The next elections were
held in 1991. But this time his party did not win popular support. The Congress
won the election and formed the government.
WHY ELECTIONS ARE NECESSARY IN DEMOCRACY?
Elections
take place regularly in any democracy. we noted in Chapter One that there are
more than one hundred countries in the would In which elections take place to
choose people’s representatives. we also read that elections are held in many
countries that are not democratic. But why do we need elections? Let us try to
imagine a democracy without elections. A rule of the people is possible without
any elections if all the people can sit together everyday and take all the
decisions. but as we have already seen in Chapter Two, this is not possible in
any large community. nort is it possible for everyone to have the time and
knowledge to take decisions on all matters.
Therefore in most democracies people rule through their representatives.
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Is there a
democratic way of selecting representatives without elections? Let us think of
a place where representatives are selected on the basis of age and experience.
Or a place where they are chosen on the basis of education or knowledge. There
could be some difficulty in deciding on who is more experienced or
knowledgable. But let us say the people can resovle these difficulties.
Clearly, such a place does not require
elections.
But can we
call this place a democracy? How do we find out if the people like their
representatives or not? How do we ensure that these representatives rule as per
the wishes of the people? How to make sure that those who the people don’t like
do not remain their representatives? This requires a mechanism by which people
can choose their representatives at regular interbals and change then if they
wish to do so. This mechanism is called election. Therefore, elections are
considered essential in our times for any representative democracy.
In an
election the voters make many choices:
“They can
choose who will make laws for them.
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.
what makes an election democratic brainly?
Elections
can be held in many ways. All democratic countries hold elections. But most
non-democratic countries also hold some kind of elections. How do we distinguish
democratic elections from any other election? We have discussed this question
briefly in Chapter Two. We discussed many examples of countries where elections
are held but they can’t really be called democratic elctions. Let us recall
what we learnt there and start with a simple list of the 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 hould be conducted in a free and faIr manner where people can choose
as they really wish.
These might
look like very simple and easy conditions. But there are many countries where
these are not fulfilled. In this chapter we will apply these conditions to the
elections held in our own country to see if we can call these democratic
elections.
IS IT GOOD TO HAVE POLITICAL COMPETITION?
Elections
are thus all about political competition. This competition takes various forms.
The most obvious form is the competition among political parties. At the
constituency level, it takes the form of competition amon several candidates.
If there is no competition, elections will become pointless.
But is it
good to have political competition? Clearly, an electoral competition has many
demerits. It creates a sense of disunity and ‘factionalism’ in every locality.
You would have heard of people complaining of ‘party-politics’ in your
locality. Different political parties and leaders often level allegations
against one another. Parties and candidates often use dirty tricks to win elections. Some
people say that this pressure to win electoral fights does not allow sensible
long-term policies to be formulated. Some good people who may wish ot serve the
country do not enter this arens. They do not like the idea of being dragged
into unhealthy competition.
Our
constitution makers were aware of these problems. Yet the opted for free
competition in elections as the way to select our future leaders. They did so
because this system works better in the long run. In an ideal world all
political leaders know what is good for the people and are motivated only by a
desire to serve them. Political competition is not necessary in such an ideal
world. but that is not what happens in real life. Political leaders all over
the world, like all other professionals, aree motivated by a desire toadvance
their political careers. they want to remain in power or get power and
positions for themselves. they may wish to serve the people as well, but it is
risky to depend entirely on their sense of duty. Besides even when they wish to
serve the people, they many not know what is required to do so, or their ideas
may not match what the people really want.
How do we
deal with this real life situation? One way is to try and improve the knowledge
and character of political leaders. The other and more realistic way is to set
up a system where political leaders are rewarded for serving the people and
punished for not doing so. Who decides this reward or punishment?
The simple
answer is: the people. This is what electoral competition does. Regular
electoral competition does. Regular electoral competition provides incentives
to political parties and leaders. they know that if they raise issues that
people want to be raised, their popularity and chances of victory will increase
in the next elections. but if they fail to satisfy the voters with their work
they will not be able to win again.
So if a
political party is motivated only by desire to be in powe, even then it will be
forced to serve the people.This is a bit like the way market works. Even if a
shopkeeper is interested only in his profit, he is forced to give good service
to the customers, If he does not, the customer will go to some other shop.
Similarly, political competition may casuse divisions and some ugliness, but it
finally helps to force political parties and leaders to serve the people.
4.2 WHAT IS OUR SYSTEM OF ELECTIONS?
Can we say
that Indian elections are democratic? To answer this question, let us take a
look at how elections are held in India. Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha (Assembly)
elections are held regularly after every fuve years. After five years the term
of all the elected rrpresentatives comes to an edn. The Lik Sabha or Vidhan
Sabha stands ‘dissolved’. Elections are held in all constituencies at the same
time. either on the same day or within a few daus. This is called a general
election. Sometimes election is held only for one constitutency to fill the
vacancy caused by death or resignation of a member. this I scalled a
by-election. In this chapter we will focus on general elections.
ELECTORAL CONSTITUENCIES
You read
about the people of Haryana electing 90 MLAS. You may have wondered how they
did that. Did every person in Haryana vote for all the 90 MLAS? You perhaps
know that this is not the case. In our country we follow an area based system
of representation. The country is divided into different areas for purposes of
elections. These areas are called elections. These areas are called electoral
constitutencies. 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 co9nstitutency is called a member of
Parliament or an MP. One of the features of a democratic election is that every
vote should have equeal value. That is why our Constitution requires that each
constituency should have a roughly equal population living within it.
Similarly,
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. Each Parliamentary constituency has within it several
assembly constituencies. The same principle applies for 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. Sometimes these constituencies are counted as ‘seats’. for each
constituency represents one seat in the assembly. When we say that ‘Lok Dal won
60 assembly constituencies in the state and thus Lok Dal had 60 MLAs in the
state assembly.
RESERVED CONSTITUENCIES
Our
Constitution entitles every citizen to elect her/his representative and to be
elected as a representative. The Constitution makers, however, were worried
that in an open electoral competition, certain weaker sections may not stand a
good chance to get elected to the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative
Assemblies. They may not have the required resources, education and contacts to
contest and win elections against others. Those who are influential and
resourceful may prevent them from winning elections. If that happens, our
Parliament and Assemblies would be deprived of the voice of a significant
section of our population. that would make our democracy less representative
and less democratic.
So, the
makers of our Constitution thought of a special system of reserved
constituencies thought of a special system of reserved constituencies for the
weaker sections. /some constituencies are reserved for people who belong to the
Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (STT). In a SC reserved constituency
only someone who belongs to the Scheduled Castes can stand for election.
Similarly only those belonging to the Scheduled Tribes can contest an election
from a constituency reserved for ST. Currently, in the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are
reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 47 for the Scheduled Tribes (as on 1
September 2012). This number is in proportion to their share in the totatl
population. Thus the reserved seats for SC and ST do not take away the legitimate
share of any other social group.
This system
of reservation was extended later to other weaker sections at the district and
local level. In many states, seats in rural (panchayat) and urban
(municipalities and corporations) local bodies are now reserved for Other
Backward Classes (OBC) as well. However, the proportion of seats reserved
varies from state to state. Similarly, one-third of the seats are reserved in
rural and urban local bodies for women candidates.
VOTERS’ LIST
This is an
important step for it is linked to the first condition of a democratic
election: everyone should get an equal opportunity to choose representatives.
In Chapter One we read about the principle of universal adult franchise. In
practice it means that everyone should have one vote and each vote should have
equal value. No one should be denied the right ot vote without a good reason.
Different citizens differ from one another in many ways: some are rich, some
are poor; some are highly educated at all; some are kind, others are not so
kind. But all of them are human beings with their own needs and views. That is
why all of them deserve to have an equal say in decisions that affect them.
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. Some criminals and persons with unsound mind can be denied the right
to vote, but only in rare situations.In is the responsibility of the government
to get the names of all the eligible voters put on the voters’ list. Names of
those who move out of a place or those who are dead are deleted. A complete
revision of the list takes place every five years. This is done to ensure that
it remains up to date. In the last few years a new system of Election Photo
Identity Card (EPIC) has been introduced. The government has tried to give this
card to every person on the voters list. The voters are required to carry this
card when they fo out ot vote. so that no one can vote for someone else. But
the card is not yet compulsory for voting. For voting, the voters can show many
other proofs of identity like the ration card or the driving licence.
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