ELECTORAL REFORM

Guided by: Mr. Kishore Dere

SUBMITTED BY:
VIDUR DWIVEDI
B.A. LL.B. (HONS.) 9TH SEMESTER
Acknowledgement

Firstly, I would like to express my profound sense of gratitude towards the almighty for
providing me with the authentic circumstances which were mandatory for the completion of
my project.

I feel myself highly delighted, as it gives me incredible pleasure to present an assignment

work on “ELECTORAL REFORMS”.

I would like to enlighten my readers regarding this topic and I hope I have tried my best to
pave the way for bringing more luminosity to this topic.

I am grateful to my Health Law Teacher Mr. Kishore Dere who has helped me to venture this
project as well as the library of Faculty of Law, Jamia Millia Islamia.

I would like to thank all concern for their interest in providing me a good back up material.

Vidur Dwivedi

B.A.LL.B (Hons) 9th Semester

4th Year
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Abstract
2. Bibliography
India has the distinction of being the largest democracy of the world. Elections are the most
important and integral part of politics in a democratic system of governance. While politics is
the art and practice of dealing with political power, election is a process of legitimization of
such power. Democracy can indeed function only upon this faith that elections are free and
fair and not rigged and manipulated, that they are effective instruments of ascertaining
popular will both in reality and in form and are not mere rituals calculated to generate illusion
of difference to mass opinion, it cannot survive without free and fair elections. The election at
present are not being hold in ideal conditions because of the enormous amount of money
required to be spent and large muscle power needed for winning the elections. While the first
three general elections (1952-62) in our country were by and large free and fair, a discernible
decline in standards began with the fourth general election in 1967. No such events were
reported till the fourth general election. Over the years, Indian electoral system suffers from
serious infirmities. The election process in our country is the progenitor of political
corruption.

The distortion in its working appeared for the first time in the fifth general elections, 1971.
And multiplied in the successive elections especially those held in eighties and thereafter.
Some of the candidate and parties participate in the process of elections to win them at all
costs, irrespective of moral values. The ideal conditions require that an honest, and upright
person who is public spirited and wants to serve the people, should be able to contest and get
elected as people‟s representatives. But in actual fact, such a person as aforesaid has no
chance of either contesting or in any case winning the election.

Free and fair elections are essential in a healthy democracy. It is an essential condition for the
success of democracy that people maintain their allegiance towards the democratic
institutions based on rule of law. The more the elections are free and fair, the stronger the
allegiance the people will have towards democratic institutions. Contrary to this, if the
elections aren't free and fair, the people will not have faith in democracy.

Indeed, the battles of ballots have been turned into battles of bullets. On the election days
booths are captured, polling agents attacked and bombs thrown to prevent weaker sections
from ever wising their franchise.
PROBLEMS OF THE POLITICAL
INSTABILITY, HUNG PARLIAMENT AND
ASSEMBLIES
There has been a great deal of political instability during the last decades. The result has been
unstable administration and unstable policies, the hallmark of minority governments. The
reasons are not far to seek. The Westminster Model adopted by us, works mainly on the basis
of a limited number of political parties. In the United Kingdom, there are only two major
political parties. Contrarily in India, politicisation at ground level coupled with a highly
fragmented society, has given rise to a multiplicity of political parties. Each one of these
exists not on a different ideology or economic programme, but on the basis of having nursed
a narrow parochial, mostly caste or religion based, identity for itself and its band of followers.
Even this support is usually earned not by doing some constructive work for the concerned
group but negatively by bad-mouthing others and all the time pitting one group against the
other. The resultant divided vote has made it increasingly difficult for single parties to get a
workable majority to form a government at the centre,

In order to cobble up a workable majority to form governments, compromises have had to be

made and all ideology or notions of quality of governance have disappeared from the scene.
This has had a very negative repercussion on the quality of governance with several
consequences. Corruption has flourished, law and order has suffered and control mechanisms
have broken down or become very loose. The common citizen has been the victim of all
resultant misgovernance1 This situation has generated its own debate and suggestions have
been made to limit the number of political parties as well as independent candidates that are
allowed to contest for national elections.

Castism: Although there is hardly any instance in India of a political party being
totally identified with any particular caste group, yet there are cases of certain castes lending
strong support to particular political parties. Thus while political parties struggle among
themselves, to win different caste groups in their favour by making offers to them, caste
groups too try to pressurize parties to choose its members for candidature in elections, If the

1
Panandikar. VA. Pai and Kashyap, Subhash C. (2001). Political Reforms: Asserting Civic Sovereignty New Delhi:
Konark Publishers, p. 325.
caste group is dominant and the political party ,is an important one, this interaction is all the
more prominent.2 In many political parties, in place of ideological polarization there occur
the determinations of policies and programmes as well as the nomination of electoral
candidates and the extension of support to them on caste consideration. Caste dominates the
political field, especially at the lower level3.The emergence of regional parties and the
„withering away of national outlook and spirit‟ thus sets off another crisis. Candidates come
to be selected not in terms to accomplishments, ability and merit but on the appendages of
caste, creed and community. Ultimately caste becomes the deciding factor on selection. Caste
based politics and castism are eroding the „unity‟ principle in the name of regional
autonomy.

Communalism: The emergence of India as a „secular‟ state, the politics of

communalism and religious fundamentalism in the post-independence period has led to a
number of separate movements in various states and regions of the country. Communal
polarization, rather multi-polarization, has posed a threat to the Indian political ethos of
pluralism, parliamentarianism and federalism. Despite the adoption of the principle of
Secularism as a constitutional creed, which ironically allows communal parties to compete,
the trend towards communalism and fundamentalism in Indian politics have been growing
day by day. The spirit of tolerance that is essential for a „secular‟ society seems to have
completely vanished from the body politics of India. The dynamics of national and state
politics of the „last decade is a mute witness of the clashes and conflicts between the so-
called Secularist and the communalist. Although a comprehensive constitutional amendment
Bill (8Oth Amendment Bill) and Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 1993 were
introduced to de-link polities from communalism, castism, and linguism etc. by the minority
Government, these could not pass through the Parliament. Caste and religion have in recent
years emerged “as rallying points to gain electoral” support.

Unfortunately there is a tendency to play upon caste and religious sentiments and field
candidates in elections with an eagle eye on the caste equations and communal
configurations.

Lack of Moral Values in Politics: There has been very sharp erosion in the
ideological orientation of political parties. Party dynamics in India has led to the emergence

2
Konark Publishers, p. 325
3
JO. “Review of the Working of Political Parties Specially in Relation of Elections and Reform Options “,
Consultation Paper, New Delhi, Nirwachan Sadan, 2001, p. 425.
of valueless politics much against the ideals of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi,
who suggested that the Congress party should be disbanded after the achievement of
Independence and its members should engage themselves in the service of the people. While
Gandhi taught us tremendous selflessness, self-sacrifice and service, to the people, such
inspirational values, the democratic norms and institutions have been destroyed
systematically over the last years of the working of the Constitution. In the process, both the
politicians and political parties have lost their credibility, the ultimate value that should bind
them with the masses. There seems to be a crisis of character amongst the politicians, as the
system does not encourage the honest leader. Because of the falling moral standards both in
the public and among the leaders, criminalisation of politics and politicization of criminals
has become the norm. Due to degeneration of leadership, parties have been entangled in
power struggle for the sake of personal ends. In a moral pursuit of power polities, every
major player seems to be playing a no holds barred game. The Gandhian value of the spirit of
service to the nation has become completely extinct from the present day politics. The money
and muscle powers are the basic evils that pollute and defile the process and motivate
participants to resort to mal practices in elections. This leads to the decline of moral values in
the arena of electoral politics. Radical measures- legislative administrative and reformatory
are needed to stem the root that is eating vitiate of the democratic process. A game can be fair
only if the players are honest and true to its spirit.

Steps Taken by the Government

The reports of various EC and a number of formal informal group discussions at various
forums and by individuals have categorically pointed out the defects in the electoral system,
some of them have ventured to come out with some useful suggestions, yet the problems
remaining to be as critical and challenging as ever.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Amendments to Election Law (1971-72), the

Tarkunde Committee Report of 1975, the Goswami Committee Report of 1990, The
Constitution Bill 1994 and the Representation of the People (Second Amendment) Bill, 1994
(passed by Parliamentary), the Election Commission‟s Recommendations in 1998 and
Indrajit Gupta Committee Report of 1998 etc. produced comprehensive set of
recommendations regarding electoral reforms. A few reforms have been implemented but „a
lot has to be done. The whole country is now expressing serious concern over the anti-social
and criminal elements entering into the electoral arena. An indomitable Mr. T.N. Seshan tried
his best to cleanse the system, but he failed Mr. Seshan‟s successor, Mr. Gill faced the same
problem. The Ex-CEC, Mr. Lingdoh also found himself in such a pitiable position, that he
has found no suitable remedy to malpractices in elections. This leads to cleans the system but,
to appeal the voters not to vote for the criminals. Mr. T.S. Krlshnamurtby, N. Gopalaswami
and Navin B. Chawala the CECs also faced the same problem. CEC, T. S. Krishnamurthy has
in a proposal letter suggested to PM Manmohan Singh a set of poll reforms that anyone
charge sheeted at least six months before elections should be barred from contesting
elections. The EC has taken several new initiatives in the recent past as a use of state owned
Electronic Media for broadcast or telecast by political parties, checking : criminalisation of
polities, providing with electoral identify cars, streamlining the procedure for registration of
political parties and requiring them to hold regular organizational elections, a variety of
measures of strict compliance of Model Code of Conduct for providing a level playing field
to contestants during the elections, and so on. In India, the BC has established a set of
guidelines known as the Model Code of Conduct that must be obeyed by political parties and
candidates in the run-up to an election. These guidelines are intended to ensure that the ruling
party at both the national and state levels - does not misuse its official position to gain an
unfair advantage in an election.

There is a pervasive feeling that something is wrong with the way elections are conducted in
India. Keeping in mind the centrality of elections in renewing the legitimacy of the
democratic political system and its vital role in the Constitution of the Political Community,
It is expected that the distortions adversely affecting the conduct of free and fair elections
will be immediately controlled and eliminated if by nothing else, than, at least, by making
suitable changes in the law governing the conduct of elections. Now, time has come to
provide some hard rules and laws in our constitution to keep away those anti-social evils
from legislative and parliament.

Electoral Reforms
The following electoral reforms have been introduced in out electoral system in the last few
years.

1. Lowering of voting Age: The constitution Act. 1988 amends Article 326 by
substituting the words '18 years' for '21 years'. This came into force on 28 March,
1989. Thus parliament through a constitutional amendment in 1989 reduced the
 minimum voting age from 21 to 18. For the first time, as many as 35.7 million voters
in this age group exercised their right to elect representatives in the 1989 elections.
2. Deputation to Election Commission: Under the Representation of the People Act,
1988, a new section 13cc was inserted which provides that officers or staff engaged in
preparation, revision and correction of electoral rolls for elections shall be deemed to
be on deputation of Election Commission for the period of such employment and such
personnel shall during that period, be subject to control, superintendence and
discipline of Election Commission.
3. Increase in number of proposers: Number of electors who are required to sign as
proposers in nomination papers for elections to council of states and State Legislative
Council has been increased to ten percent of the electors of the constituency or ten
such electors whichever is less to prevent frivolous candidates.
4. Electronic Voting Machine: The Representation of the people Act, 1951 was
amended to facilities use of electronic voting machines in elections.
5. Booth capturing: Section 58 A has been inserted in the Representation of the people
Act 1951 by Act 1 of 1989 providing for adjournment of pole or countermanding of
elections because of booth capturing. Booth capturing ha6 been defined in section 135
A of the Representation of the people Act 1951. If because of booth capturing result
of poll result of counting cannot be ascertained returning officer will report the matter
forthwith to Election Commission. Election Commission on such report may either
declare the poll at the particular polling station as void appoint a date for fresh poll or
count remand election in that constituency.
6. Poll Law Ordinance: A notable hurdle in holding elections in Punjab in the
eventuality of the death of an independent candidate was effectively removed on
January 4, 1992 with the promulgation of an ordinance under which the parliamentary
and state assembly elections will not be countermanded in such cases. The ordinance
amends, the Representation of the people Act.

Suggestions
To stream line the system we want radical reforms in the entire electoral system. Electoral
reforms and other measures have become imperative to overcome the threat to democracy
and carry democracy process forward. To improve the draw backs and loopholes in the
electoral system we propose these reforms.
1. Reorganization of Election Commission: To start with let us consider the
appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner which as per the present procedure
cannot be considered to be totally free from political bias as the appointment is made
on the advice of the leader of the ruling party in the House. Considering the various
suggestions regarding the appointment of chief Election Commissioner, the following
mechanism would seem to be a good compromise and a practical proposition. The
appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner can be made through a committee
consisting of the Chief Justice of India, the leaders of the ruling party and main
opposition party in parliament.
The committee can make a panel of few eminent persons each one of them selected
unanimously, and forward it to the president for final selection. In this way the over
whelming say that the ruling party has in the appointment of the Chief Election
Commissioner can be neutralized.
Further, it should be made mandatory that the Chief Election Commissioner on
completion of his term will not be eligible for consideration for any office of profit.
However, a retiring Chief Election Commissioner may be provided an adequate
compensation package. The members of the Election Commission should be
appointed by the same committee as was proposed for the selection of the Chief
Election Commissioner, but with the Chief Election Commissioner as an ex-officio
member, Retired Govt officials should not be allowed to occupy this office.
2. Independent Election Machinery: The Election Commission should have its own
administrative machinery at the state level and its powers should be considerably
augmented. At present the Election Commission is completely at the mercy of the
central and state govts. It cannot even maintain the electoral rolls up-to-date without
assistance from the state govt. In these circumstances, the independence of the
election system would always be under constant threat from the vested interests
dominating the party in power which in fact controls administration.
3. Simultaneous Elections: To curb the election expenditure it would help much if
elections are simultaneously held for the Lok Sabha. State Assemblies and also the
local bodies. This would drastically reduce election expenditure of all kinds and
would incidentally promote development of a healthy party system at all levels of
administrative structure.
4. State Funding of Electoral Campaigns: In addition to the simultaneous holding of
elections, some system of funding of electoral campaigns is absolutely necessary. A
 simple procedure can be adopted. Candidates of a recognized political party and
independents who have received more than, say 25% of the valid votes polled in a
particular constituency in a previous election, would be entitled to receive a fixed
contribution in two instalments equal to three-fourth of the limit imposed by the
Election Commission on the election expenditure. These limits should be revised on
the eve of every General Election. Bossism prevails in all parties. New candidates
will, of course not benefit by this arrangement.
5. Discouraging Fake Candidates: To curb trivolous candidatures the Election
Commission made various recommendations:
a. Raise the security deposit for the Lok Sabha and State Assembly;
b. denial of facilities like telephone connection, subsidized printing paper, etc., to
independent candidates,
c. Disqualifying candidates who fail to poll at least 20% valid votes. The first
two suggestions may be considered, but the last one is absolutely vicious; so is
the suggestion that there should be complete ban on independents.
6. Elections Time Table: In order to help reduce the heavy expenses incurred by the
candidates in election evering. the scrutiny of nomination should be taken up on the
day after the last date for making nominations, the interval allowed after the scrutiny
of nominations for the withdrawal of candidatures should be reduced to 2 days and the
minimum period prescribed for the election campaign should be reduced to 15 days.
7. Holding By-elections: It was alleged that some by-elections are not held for a very
long period which naturally created suspicion on the part of the authorities. The Lok
Sabha joint parliamentary committee recommended that a statutory limit of 6 months
should be introduced in the constitution for the holding of all by-elections.
8. Electronic Machines: There is a need to introduce electronic machines in the voting
process. The only difference here is the voter has to press a button instead of marking
a ballot paper. The use of electronic gadgets for election purpose will in the long run
add to the savings.
9. Disposal of Election case: Election petitions also take a long time to be disposed of.
Although it is required by Law that the election petition should be disposed of within
6 months of its filing, yet seldom this is done.
10. Introduction of proportional Representation with List System: The present
majority system should be replaced by a system of proportional representation of all
the system of representation, proportional representation will be best suited to our
 conditions to ensure that legislative bodies. Seats should be allotted in proportion to
the valid polled votes of the different political parties. Of the various forms of the
proportional representation, the most democratic and feasible for our conditions will
be list system. The electorate votes for the party list as a whole.
11. Rotation of Reserved Seats: It is proposed rotation of reserved seats for scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes.
12. Care taker Govt, at the centre and in the states: In the case of the Lok Sabha and
Assembly elections, the central govt, as well as the state govt should function only as
caretaker govt during a minimum period immediately preceding the election and it
should include some leaders of the opposition parties.
13. Use of Radio and T.V.: Radio and Television should be allowed to be used by all
political parties for election propaganda on some considered formula. The votes
secured by the political parties in earlier elections could be a rational basis.
14. Delay in Elections: This creates a lot of bitterness and suspicion. A mandatory
provision should therefore be made to hold such elections within six months from the
day of vacancy or dissolution.

15. Election Expenditure: Expenses incurred by the candidate and the party should be
taken into consideration while accounting for election expenditure. Having regard to
the present costs, proper limits on expenditure should be fixed in consultation with the
opposition parties. All these expenses must be required to be examined by charactered
accountants and any false entries should be made rigorously punishable.
Goswami Committee's
Recommendations
A special committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Dinesh Goswami then Law Minister, had
been set up early in 1990 to study the problem in detail and suggest measures for remedying
the flows in the system. The committee has made the following recommendations.

1. On booth capturing, the committee felt that even after the 1988 amendment of the
Representation of the people's Act the evil persisted and recommended a series of
legislative measures to eradicate booth capturing, rigging and intimidation. The
recommended steps include ordering of repoll or countermanding not only on the
report of the returning officer but even otherwise and giving the commission the
power to appoint investigating agencies, prosecuting agencies and ask for the
constitution of special courts.
2. The committee also called for amendment of the antireflection laws to restrict
disqualification only to those cases where on elected member voluntarily gives up his
membership of the political party. The power of deciding the legal aspect of
disqualification should be taken away from the speaker or chairman and entrusted to
the president or Governor who will act according to the Election Commission's
recommendations.
3. There was difference of opinion on switching over from the present electoral system
to proportional representation or the list system. The committee has. In this case,
recommended constitution of an experts committee by the Law ministry in
consultation with the Election Commission.
4. A fresh delimitation on the basis of the 1981 census and a provision for rotation of
seats reserved for scheduled castes. Photo identity should be made a multi-purpose
card and a time-bound programme for covering the entire country with the proposed
scheme should be drawn up.
5. A person should not be allowed to contest election from more than two constituencies.
Age qualifications for contesting elections to Legislative Assemblies and Lok Sabha
should be reduced to 21 years and Legislative councils and council of states to 25
years.
 6. The committee has said that there should be statutory backing for some of the
important provisions of the model code of conduct like use of official machinery and
personnel, including aircraft and vehicles, issues of advertisement matter at the cost of
the encqurer, use of official media for partisan coverage of political news,
announcement or sanctioning of financial grants in any form or making payments out
of discretionary funds and laying of foundation stones for projects.
7. It called for a ban on transfer of officials and staff connected with election work and
giving the commission's observers statutory powers.
8. The panel called for fixing of a six month time limit for holding bye-elections.
9. Enabling the Army personnel and those in para-military forces and persons outside
India in diplomatic service to vote through proxy was also recommended by the
committee.
10. The other recommendations include extensive restructuring of the election expenses
account to restore the position as it existed before 1974 and making unauthorized
expenditure an offence.
11. There should be appointment of adequate number of ad-hoc Judges to relieve regular
judges entrusted with the expeditions trial of election petitions.
12. It also said that a standing committee of parliament should be constituted to go into all
matters from time to time as electoral reforms were a continuous process.

The proposed legislation is expected to be based on this report and the proposals submitted
by Election Commission.