The ECI’s Role in Protecting & Preserving Electoral Democracy

Introduction

India is a democratic country, as has been affirmed by the Preamble to the Constitution. But what makes the Indian democratic system different from others is its periodical conduct of elections. It is an essential function for the maintenance of democracy. The self-governing institution that has been established as per the Constitution of India to monitor the electioneering process & conduct free & reasonable elections is the Election Commission of India (ECI). It is an independent constitutional body established in the year 1950. Since 1952, ECI has proved to be a successful tool in ensuring the conduct of elections with the top standard of code of conduct, fairness, transparency & accountability. However, in recent years, with the due process of time, the election process has been in the control of political heads which resulted in electoral malpractices. Candidates of parties with abundant money are in advantageous position over the smaller parties. The Election Commission (EC) that was instituted to keep the political competition in control & ensure healthy competition has itself become a place of political controversies. In a country like ours where power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, politicians behave like Kings who can buy votes with money, thus promoting corruption & favoritism. And writing on this raises a question that : “ Are Elections in India Free & Fair?”

Role of Election Commission in strengthening & deepening Democracy

“Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards our fellow men.”
                                                                                     ―B.R. Ambedkar

Democracy can persist only when the ruler is people-centered by paying respect to societal & cultural values & traditions. In India, with the growth in politicization, it has become our utmost need to safeguard the democratic norms & values via establishment of institutions & commissions that will protect the democratic system & the ideals enshrined in it from undue influence. Election Commission of India (ECI) is such independent body that has successfully played a crucial role in building up the democratic principles & standards of our country in every possible ways. In India, the poor & underprivileged class vote in bulk in comparison to the rich & so called privileged class. It is because of the Commission that the socially & economically underprivileged groups could raise a political voice & participate in the democratic proccesses with equal say & equal rights by allowing them to participate in electoral proccesses. Election Commission has brought them a sensation of self dignity & self fulfillment thereby, promoting the spirit of democracy. The EC has never been alleged to exercise arbitrary power & has never been a harsh & cruel institution. Henceforth, people have invested their larger trust in the ECI’s performance.

The EC has been referred to as “the means to the end of a vibrant representative democracy ” and as “a bulwark for free & fair elections in India”. In the case of Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narain[1], the Supreme Court ruled that one of the most important & central features of the Indian democracy is “free exercise of franchise”. The Election Commission has been the only commission that has been mostly relied upon by the judiciary, police & political parties (According to the reports of 1996 National Election Study). ECI ensures that the elections to the Parliament & State Legislatures is conducted freely & fairly with highest degree of transparency, accountability & utmost professionalism. It helps in the establishment & execution of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for smooth conduct of elections & to regulate the conduct of candidates & parties. It has been rigid on the contravention of the MCC.  The Commission has advocated the ideals embodied in our Constitution, namely, equity, equality, biasness and impartiality, supervising rule of law  & control over the electoral process. Several efforts have been made to prevent increasing criminalization of politics by keeping a tab on muscle power & money expenses estimated by the candidates during elections, by disqualifying candidates with conviction for more than 2 years. The commission had never failed in taking disciplinary actions against the political parties if they neglect to preserve democratic values within the party. The Commission has been fruitful in building confidence & trust in the minds of elector regarding the conduct of election procedures & electoral system, thereby guaranteeing greater participation of people. It has generated awareness among the citizens about the importance of voting, its procedure of conduct & governance. There has been an exemplary rise in voter turnout in elections, especially the women voters. Fair election in India gives more licitness to the government eventuating in implementation of schemes effectively & efficiently. As quoted by a Pakistani journalist, “Size of Indian population does not scare me but the extensive elections there definitely does”.

However, with the passage of time, some serious glitches has been revealed – paid news, corruption, bribery by parties, criminalization of politics, polarization besides communal ideas that needs to immediately addressed by grating more authority to the Election Commission.

Growing loopholes & Major shortcomings

Over the period of time, the reality of the elections is transformed contrary to the rule book regulating elections. The election process has collapsed, political propaganda by use of unfair means has aggravated & political bodies have stepped into intensified brutality & electoral malpractices. From a very long time, several state governments have been consistent in making huge transfers on the day before elections, thereby, sometimes infringing ECI’s orders. Ultimately, ECI has admonished the parties for violating the MCC & reinforced the supervision of elections & parties actions. The ECI has been ineffective in detaining this degradation of electoral system. The EC is not properly equipped to control the actions of political parties. The ECI has been provided with no authority to effectuate inner party democracy & deregister the parties.

It has been firmly provided in the rule book of the Election Commission that the presence of criminal charges against the candidates will automatically lead to their disqualification from contesting elections. But, according to the statistics in 2019, more than 50% of the candidates of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu (YSR) Congress Party & around 35% of the candidates from BJP have records of criminal charges instituted against them. It is provided in the rules of EC that no voter shall be supplied with alcohol & beverages items before the polling but in 2014 Parliamentary elections in Assam & West Bengal, gigantic quantity of liquor & ganja were captured during polling rounds. There are many incidences where political parties bribe voters by gifting them with expensive materials like mobile phones, laptops to win people’s confidence & buy their votes.

Election Commission have been persistently accountable to allegations of favoritism & biasness. During January-February 2009, the Chief Election Commissioner wrote a letter to the President recommending him to dismiss Election Commissioner Mr. Navin Chawla under the pretext of partisanship during assembly elections in Karnataka. Following this, another incident came into limelight where EC responded to the communistic spiteful speech deliverd by Varun Gandhi in March as “grave violation of MCC” & that’s when the entire Commission was accused of being bias & partial towards the rival party. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, ECI failed to discharge its functions & tremendous doubts were raised regarding the freeness & fairness of the polls. The names of the voters from marginalized class were removed during the elections.

Therefore, an impression has been generated over the past few years that the Election Commission is under the control of Executive, thereby declining the competitive nature of elections, one of the essential requirements for successful implementation of democratic governance.

A step Forward

Elections in India are worldwide popular due to its democratic functions & higher voter turnout but it is equally necessary to be consistent in that position by way of improved governance, greater equality, societal fairness & justice. However, due to the bribery by electors, corrupt practices, prevalence of red tapism, vote-buying, politicians contesting elections with criminal records, violating Model Code of Conduct & caste-centric politics, the main objective behind the elections cannot be accomplished in a democratic country. These are the major issues that create loopholes & have to be immediately dealt with in order to ensure free & fair elections, therefore strengthening democracy.

There are various Supreme Court judgment addressing the problems in relation to the elections. In the case of P.R. Balagali v. B.D. Jatti (1971)[2] , the Supreme Court  reversed the decision of the Mysore High Court & observed that free & fair elections are the bedrock of the democracy. Elections shall not only be freely & fairly conducted but also seems to be conducted in order to gain greater participation & public confidence of the electors that everything has been done to ensure a fair election. While in the case of Union of India v. Association for Democratic Reforms (2002)[3],  the Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court’s order of authorizing the Election Commission of India to have access to all the information of the candidate. The court mandates the Election Commission to take necessary possible steps to direct the parties to give all the required information from the candidate contesting elections to Parliament or State Legislature including criminal charges, previous convictions, pending criminal cases, educational background & qualification of a candidate.

There are many more multitudinous cases that the Courts have delivered from time-to-time in order to ensure fairness & transparency of the Election Commission & safeguard the true essence of democracy.

Some of the measures that can be undertaken to fill this major shortcoming are :-

1. The ECI shall be given adequate authority to regulate the political parties. The members shall be constitutionally protected in matters of removal from office and the appointment procedure for Election Commissioner & Chief Election Commissioner shall be advisory.
2. It is important to destroy the vicious circle of corruption & dishonesty, thereby making the government machinery & its officials more transparent & answerable for their actions.

• Steps are to be taken to curb the serious issue of the circulation of black money across the country.

1. Political parties ought to be within the clutch of the Right to Information Act, 2005 and are obliged to disclose all the information about their background & other relevant facts & criminal records.
2. The ECI should be strengthened by giving more independence so that they can exercise their power freely & fairly by regulating the electoral process.
3. Some suitable legislations should be frames to keep a check on expenses of parties during election campaigning & put necessary restrictions.

• Instead of being influenced by candidate’s bank balance, expensive gifts in the form of bribery 7 caste, citizens should cast their vote based on the candidate’s character, capabilities & determination to serve the country & its people.[4]

Conclusion

Democracy is a form of government of the people, by the people & for the people, where people themselves elect their representatives. The commission responsible for conducting elections, i.e. the Election Commission of India has carried out a plethora of notable changes in voting to foster the spirit of democracy & ensure improved transparency in elections. But with the changing time, the fairness & transparency of elections has been deteriorated by some corrupt & unrighteous politicians, who can go to any extent to win elections. It is high time that the Election Commission should improvise & reform its operation. Mere implementation of laws is not enough, it needs to be executed in the right direction. The ECI shall work independently without any kind of undue influence from the government. It should uphold the basic ideals enshrined in the Indian Constitution :- promoting rule of law, ensuring free & fair conduct of elections, transparency, accountability & sovereignty of the nation. Therefore, the Election Commission shall perform the elections in an orderly manner to elevate the democratic representation of people in electoral processes.

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References

[1] AIR 1975 SC 2299

[2] 1971 AIR 1348 SCR (2) 611

[3] (2002) 5 SCC 294

[4] The Post & the Person : On Strengthening the EC, (Lat accessed 17^th Oct, 8:30 AM), https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/the-post-and-the-person-on-strengthening-the-ec

Author: Komal Agrawal (KIIT Law School, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar)