Polls a Vibrant fete of Democracy : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Polls a Vibrant fete of Democracy

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

The Hans India (03-05-2017)

“As the world’s most populous democracy, India holds world’s largest national elections. The electorate size in the 16^th General Elections held in 2014 was a little above 834 million for whom 9, 27, 553 polling stations were set up across 543 constituencies. There were 8251 contestants representing 465 political parties and independents. The election was staggered across 10 phases” recorded in the book published by Election Commission of India and was unveiled on the 7^th National Voters’ day on 25^th January 2017.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEO) of India Dr Nasim Zaidi presented a copy of this coffee table book, “Unfolding Indian Elections-journey of the living democracy”, to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. In his letter to CM, CEO mentioned that, the book is an attempt to experience the collective memory of elections held in India in furtherance of Indian tradition of democracy. He also said that elections are a festival of democracy that cut across ethnic, linguistic, regional and religious barriers. The book covers the evolutionary pattern of elections held in India incorporating important data, facts, factoids and anecdotes weaving interesting stories associated with the electoral process. The book is very interesting and educative as well as highly informative. 

In his message to the book the CEO says that we renew our faith in democracy periodically through elections and adds that the freedom of the nation must reflect in the freeness and fairness of elections. It’s worthwhile to share some of the contents of the book that cover from the days of pre-independent period to EVMs glancing into adult suffrage, independent election commission, model code etc.

The book reveals that a sustained constitutional battle for representative government led to council’s Act, 1892 that conceded the concept of indirect elections.  Earlier the Indian Council’s Act, 1861 allowed the entry of Indians on nomination basis into the Legislative Councils for the first time. The Government of India Act, 1919 provided for direct election to 100 out of 140 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly in British India. Five elections were held under this Act from 1920 to 1934. In 1923 an election deposit of just Rs. 250 was collected and if the contestant failed to get one-eighth of the polled votes, forfeited the deposit amount. Keeping in view of large number of illiterate voters election symbols were introduced then itself.

Independence to India heralded universal adult suffrage and the first General Elections were held to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies simultaneously during 1951-52. Every citizen above 21 years (now it is 18 years) of age was eligible to vote. It was an enormous task to enroll every adult citizen. Size of the electorate was 173.20 million voters. The process of election began on September 10, 1951 with issuing notification and concluded on June 4, 1952. As many as 489 out of 499 seats were filled by election to the first Lok Sabha in which 72 seats were reserved for SCs and 26 for STs. A total of 1874 were in the fray. A total of 15, 361 candidates contested for 3, 283 seats for Legislative Assemblies in all the states. The global community witnessed the elections with great interest. The first CEO of India Sukumar Sen oversaw the elections.

Two bulls with Yoke, Tree, Hand, Hut, Ears of corn with sickle etc., were some of the election symbols then. The indelible ink for application on voter’s finger was developed by Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1951. Later, since 1962, Mysore paints and Varnish Limited has been manufacturing this. 24, 73, 850 metal boxes and 1, 11, 095 wooden boxes were used to receive ballots because each candidate was assigned one box then. Some voters regarded ballot boxes as objects of worship and dropped flowers and some dropped papers hurling abuses to a particular candidate.

India has constitutionally guaranteed independent Election Commission from the ‘day one’ when the constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949. Though Article 324 permits the Election Commission of India to have a three member team, in effect, CEC was the sole member from March 21, 1950 to October 15, 1989 and then again from January 2, 1990 to September 30, 1993. Since October 1, 1993 the Commission became a three member body. Only through a parliamentary impeachment can the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) be removed from office.

Beginning with Sukumar Sen as the first CEC, several luminaries occupied the seat. To mention names of them, we had, KVK Sundaram, SP Sen Verma, Nagendra Singh, T Swaminathan, SL Shakdhar, RK Trivedi, RVS Peri Sastri, VS Ramadevi, TN Seshan, MS Gill, JM Lyngdoh, TS Krishnamurthy, BB Tandon, N Gopalaswami, Navin B Chawla, SY Quraishi, VS Sampath, HS Brahma and the present Dr Nasim Zaidi.

Every state and union territory has a Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) as the representative of the Election Commission of India. The CEC announces the schedule of elections after taking into account various factors like weather, agricultural cycle, examination schedules, religious festivals, public holidays etc., besides logistical factors.

The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are the new ballots. The usage has trimmed the bulk and the cost of election material, lessened manpower requirement, eliminates invalid voting and accelerated the counting process. Initially used on experimental basis the EVMs after finding as totally tamperproof, in the 14^th General Election held in 2004, they were used in all Lok Sabha constituencies. Election Commission introduced the “None of The Above” (NOTA) option on EVMs in accordance with the orders of Apex Court in 2013, giving a choice to electors who do not want to vote for any of the candidates. Similarly, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was first used in Noksen Assembly segment in Nagaland in September 2013 enabling voter to verify that their vote has gone to the intended candidate only.

Imposters personating as voters listed on electoral roll was a menace that was detected quite early. It was taken note of by the first CEC. This led to issuing photo Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC). In due course the EPIC became a valid ID card-cum-address proof.  The first pilot project for issuing EPIC was taken up as early as in 1960 in Calcutta South West Parliamentary Constituency and at national level in August 1993. Gradually electoral rolls were computerized.

While this is the scenario for the general elections, the elections to two highest constitutional offices of the country namely that of President and the Vice-President are conducted on the basis of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Both elections are held by secret ballot. They are still conducted by EC in the old fashion of casting paper ballot. The President is elected by members of Electoral College consisting of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of states and union territories. Vice-President is elected by members of Electoral College consisting of both elected and nominated members of both Houses of Parliament.

The Model Code of Conduct is a set of conventions applicable to political parties and candidates during the elections. Its purpose is to keep the campaigning, polling and counting orderly; prevent any breach of peace; and check abuse of state machinery and finances to the benefit of party in power. It is in force from the date of announcement of elections till the official declaration of results. The code however does not enjoy any statutory or legal backing. Publication of exit poll results is prohibited by law until the conclusion of polling.

World had taken notice of elections in India and journalists, politicians and observers from numerous countries descended upon India to see its novel experiment of adult suffrage.