ABSTRACT

India’s electoral laws are unique among other countries. Post independence era steps are taken to ensure that elections are fair, transparent and inclusive. Indian electoral system in that time faces problems like illiteracy, larger population, unawareness about the electoral system, time taking process, etc. Steps like lowering age of voting, creation of election commission, awareness about the importance of the elected representatives, introduction of the party symbols, etc are important measures in the history of the Indian election system. Even after, these reforms our electoral system suffers from problems like corruption, black money, fraud, gifts for voters, etc. In this article, I focus on the evolution of Indian Electoral laws, problems that are faced in the system, steps to rectify the defects.

KEYWORDS – Electoral system, Fairness, Transparent, Inclusivity

INTRODUCTION

India is a Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic with parliamentary form of government and multiparty system. India being a democratic country, the process of holding democratic election is very important. Fair and transparent election are sine qua non of the democracy. Post independence Indian Constituent Assembly governed the country till the elections are held in the country. The first election was held in 1951 were Indian National Congress won the elections and Jawaharlal Nehru is the first Prime Minister of the Independent India. India on that point of time being with huge population with more illiterate people, the government is provided with huge task of developing the country, increasing employment levels, eradicating poverty, ensuring food safety, etc. With all these problems holding elections for first time with these number of people were seen has a historic fest in the Indian election system[1]. Article 324 to Article 329 of the Constitution of India[2] deals with elections. Certain laws are passed in India for regulating elections.

REPRESENTATION OF PEOPLES ACT, 1950[3]

Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 play an important role in shaping India’s election system in following ways

1. Universal Adult Franchise

The important point in that act in the universal adult franchise because of this all the persons completed 18 years or above are eligible to cast their votes in the election.

2. Procedure

A detailed procedure for the conduct of the Elections is provided under this act.

• Administrative actions to be taken by the election commission like nomination by the candidates, preparing electoral roll, setting up of electoral booths, appointment of officers for concerned posts, etc are given.

3. Qualification and Disqualification of the Candidates

Qualifications include

• He/she must be citizen of India
• Completed 18 years of age
• Must be of minimum 25 years of age in case of Parliament and state Legislature elections
• Such other qualifications have been provided

Disqualifications includes

• He/she declared as insolvent
• He/she holds any office of profit in Government of India or the State Governments
• Declared as unsound mind by the competent court
• He/ she is not a citizen of India.

4. Authority to Election Commission of India

This act provides sole authority to the Election Commission of India for the conduct of the elections in India. It has general control and superintendence over the political parties and candidates.

REPRESENTATION OF PEOPLES ACT, 1951[4]

This act adds further improvements to the previous act.

1. Dispute adjudication

This act provides with the procedure for dealing with the elections related disputes like procedural irregularity, illegal expenditure, booth inversion, gifts distribution, etc. This also provides for the adjudication of the offences through the courts and tribunals.

2. Timeline for elections

This provides the timeline within which the elections need to be conducted to the parliament and state legislature. For the processes like filing of the petition, returning of petition, declaration of results, etc timelines are provided.

3. Bar to the financial resources

This act specifies the amount to be used by each of the political parties and their candidates. This is specified to avoid the money games and to provide level ground for each candidate.

4. Disqualification of Candidates

This act provides further grounds for disqualification like non-disclosure of the asset details, violation of election rules, etc.

This both Acts play as a pillar for conduct of the elections in India over the period of India. Several amendments are made in this act to incorporate timely changes.

ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA

Post independence, the first electoral reform introduced is the creation of Election Commission of India in 1950. On that time, only Chief Election Commissioner was the sole member in the commission. Article 324 of the Constitution of India 1950, have stated that Election Commission of India is having general control and supervision over the elections conducted in India.  From 1993, it became a three-member body.[5]

Notable reforms of Election Commission include the following

1. Implementation of Model Code of Conduct

These are the set of guidelines, which is created by the election commission and the political parties and their candidates need to follow these for the fair and smooth conduct of election. These guidelines are created after discussing with the political parties. It is mandatory to be followed.

2. Voter Identity Card

These has been introduced by the election commission to limit frauds like another person putting the votes of another person, regulating the number of voters. This is introduced to ascertain the accurate number of voters and helps in keeping track of the mobile rural areas.

3. Automatization of Electoral rolls

Election Commission is taking steps to automatize the electoral rolls. This is helpful for speed and accurate data of voters being available. So, if any person wants to change their details in the electoral roll, it can be done from any part of the country.

4. Introduction of symbols

Election commission will allocate symbols for each political parties and individual candidates before the election. The motto behind this is, people in India been mostly uneducated on that point of India and it is difficult for them vote by reading the name of the candidates and political parties. By introduction of symbols people were able to know the candidate they vote and this significantly raised the voter’s turnover.

5. Introduction of Electronic Voting Machine and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail

This introduction has substantial reduced the delay in counting process involved and election results are declared quickly and with VVPAT people can able to verify whether they have voted to the candidate they wished. It helps to avoid frauds and confessions in the voting process.

CHALLENGES FACED BY THE CURRENT SYSTEM

Even after rules that are provided in the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 and after the general control and supervision of the Election Commission[6], there are certain problems still present in our electoral system. 

1. Monetary offences

The problems like bribery and manipulations in the election results affects the credibility of the elections. Candidate spend more money then specified in the Representation of Peoples Act and does not show proper accounts for it. The level play in the elections is affected has people with money is able to win the elections by providing gift items and money to the voters.

2. Criminalization of politics

There is a criminalization of politics is taking place. More than 10% of candidates appearing in the elections have criminal background. When people with criminal backgrounds contest in the election, people lost trust over the elections and trend of voting to NOTA is increasing. This in turn affect voter turnover, which is a bad sign to the elections held.

3. Muscle Power

When there are certain predictions like candidate may lost the election or likely to win by small margins, then there is a possibility of using the goons for threaten the people to vote in their favour or if they lost the election, they may induce riots and destroy the public property.

4. Misuse of government properties

Candidates who are in the power previously use the government properties allotted to them for their election campaign. They misuse the government property and violate the modern code of conduct. Indirectly tax payers’ money is wasted for the personal benefits of the candidates.

5. Fake election predictions

The media houses are competing with themselves in the process of providing pre-election and post-election predictions. There are allegations where the media houses are getting paid for producing fake numbers and which in turn influence the voters’ mindsets.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

There is an urgent need to rectify these issues to ensure the fairness of the election been conducted.

1. Promoting participation of all classes of people

Problems like general discrimination and caste discrimination in the elections need to be ratified by encouraging all sectors of the people to participate in the elections. Reservations for the women’s, scheduled tribes and scheduled castes and other reservations should be properly followed.

2. Strengthening election commissions powers

Election commission should be provided with additional powers for regulating the elections. Existing enforcement mechanisms are need to be strengthened.

3. Protection to the people

People should be able to cast their votes freely without any fear. It is the duty of the election commission to hold free elections and political parties and candidates should ensure that they do not involve in any unlawful activities against the voters.

4. Honest candidates should be promoted

Political parties should fund the candidates who are honest and ready to work for the welfare of the people. Candidates with criminal background should be rejected. It any candidate involve in fraudulent activities; he should be disqualified up front.

5. Promoting awareness programs

People should be educated about the importance of the elections and art of selecting correct candidates to them. People should be encouraged not to get gifts and money from the candidates for votes.

CONCLUSION

The election commission is held with the responsibility to hold fair and transparent elections. If the people stop voting to the corrupt, dishonest and untrustworthy candidates who provide money and gifts to buy the votes, then the democracy will be protected and people can enjoy the right path of development along with fair and inclusive government. Above mentioned problems should be avoided and ensure that the largest democracy in the world leads has an inspiration to the world.

[1] Parijata Bhardwaj, The Evolution of Elections in India, Hindustan Times (June 4, 2024), https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/the-evolution-of-elections-in-india-101717443373955.html.

[2] Constitution of India, 1949

[3] Representation of Peoples Act, 1950

[4] Representation of Peoples Act, 1951

[5] Dheeraj, Election History in India: A Comprehensive Overview, Medium (Apr. 25, 2024), https://medium.com/Dheeraj-DiandDA/election-history-in-india-a-comprehensive-overview-fe47d6098ab0.

[6] Amandeep Kaur, Election Laws in India, I Pleader (May 19, 2019), https://blog.ipleaders.in/election-laws-in-india/.