CLASS 9 CIVICS LESSON 4 - ELECTORAL POLITICS

ELECTORAL POLITICS

Assembly Election in Haryana, 1987

•      The state had been ruled by Congress party led govt since 1982.

•      Chaudhary Devi Lal, then an opposition leader, led a movement called ‘Nyaya Yudh’ (Struggle for Justice) and formed a new party, Lok Dal.

•      His party joined other opposition parties to form a front against the Congress in the elections.

•      Devi Lal said that if his party won the elections, his govt would waive the loans of farmers and small businessmen.

•      The people were unhappy with the existing govt

•      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.

•      The Congress could win only 5 seats.

•      We already know what is politics, so let us study about electoral politics-

•      It is a field where we elect our representatives by voting them. The more the votes, the more the chances to win the election.

Why Elections?

Ø  Elections can lead to changes in the policy of government.

Ø  The governor invited can become the chief minister if he is impressed by the speeches.

Ø  People are unhappy with every ruling party and vote against it in the next election.

Ø  The party that wins the election forms the govt.

Ø  The election can lead to economic development in the state or in the country.

Ø  The party need not have resigned after his party lost elections.

Ø  The country which have elections are said to be democratic.

Why do we need Elections?

Ø  The people can choose their leaders who will make laws for them.

Ø  They can choose who will form the government and take major decisions.

Ø  They can choose the party whose policies will guide the government and law making.

Ø  A rule of the people is possible without any elections if all the people can sit together everyday and take all the decisions.

Ø  People can choose their representatives at regular intervals and change them if they wish to do so.

Ø  Therefore, elections are considered essential in our times for any representative democracy.

What makes an election democratic?

Ø  Everyone should be able to choose. This means that everyone should have one vote and every vote should have equal value.

Ø  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.

Ø  The choice should be offered at regular intervals. Elections must be held regularly after every five years.

Ø  The candidate preferred by the people should get elected.

Ø  Elections should be conducted in a free and fair manner where people can choose as they really wish.

Is it good to have a political competition?

Ø  It can be divided into two parts demerits and merits

DEMERITS

Ø  Clearly, an electoral competition has many demerits.

Ø  It creates a sense of disunity and ‘factionalism’ (division) in every day society. (Different political parties and leaders often allegations against one another)

Ø  Candidates and parties use dirty tricks or methods for winning elections.

Ø  People who want to serve the country avoid entering this field owing to unhealthy competition.

MERITS

Ø  People will get the full right to vote and choose their representatives.

Ø  The country which has adopted the election procedure is also counted in democratic country.

Ø  It helps to the elected representative to go out and serve the country and the countrymen.

Ø  After the people get the right to vote they are considered as equal.

The following picture shows the countries who have adopted democracy and has benefitted. (Page no.8 &9)

What is our System of Election?

Ø  The Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha (Assembly) elections are held regularly in India every 5 years.

Ø  They are held in all constituencies at the same time, either on the same day or within a few days. This is called a General Election.

Ø  There are certain elections that are conducted/held in a particular constituency to fill the vacancy caused by death or resignation of a member. These are called bye-elections.

Electoral Constituencies

Ø  The country is divided into electoral constituencies for both the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly elections. One representative is elected from each constituency by the voters.

Ø  The country is divided into 543 constituencies for the Lok Sabha elections. The selected representative is called the Member of Parliament or MP.

Ø  Similarly, each state is divided into a number of Assembly constituencies and the representative selected from each constituency is called the Member of Legislative Assembly or MLA.

Each Parliamentary constituency has within it several assembly constituencies. The same principle applies for Panchayats and Municiapal elections. Each village or town is divided into several wards that are like constituencies. Sometimes these constituencies are counted as ‘seats’.

Reserved Constituencies (Election Procedures)

Ø  In open electoral competitions, certain weaker sections of the society may not stand a good chance of winning because of the influence of powerful sections.

Ø   Hence, the makers of our Constitution prepared a system of reserved constituencies for these weaker sections.

Ø  They may not have the required resources, education and contacts to contest and win elections.

Ø  Certain constituencies are reserved for the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST).

Ø  Currently in the Lok Sabha, seats reserved for the SCs and STs are 84 and 47 respectively (as per 1^st Sep, 2012). These are in proportion to their population in the total population of the country.

Ø  Seats are reserved for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) as well. Seats in rural (Panchayat) and urban (Municipalities and corporations) local bodies are now reserved for OBCs.

Ø  Similarly, one-third of the seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for women candidates.

Voter’s List

Ø  The list of people who are eligible for voting is prepared by the Election Commission of India.

Ø  This ensures that everyone in the country gets an equal opportunity of choosing their political representatives.

Ø  Regardless of a person’s caste, creed, colour and gender, every citizen of and above 18 years of age is eligible to vote.

Ø  This is an important step, it is linked to the first condition of a democratic election: everyone should get an equal opportunity to choose their representatives.

Ø  Different citizens differ from one another in many ways : some are rich; some are poor; some are highly educated and some are not so educated and some not educated at all, but still they have the right to vote.

Nomination of Candidates

Ø  An Indian citizen, Age should be minimum 25 years.

Ø  There are restrictions on people with criminal records, but those are extreme cases.

Ø  The candidate has to fill a nomination form and give a security deposit.

Ø  Also, a legal declaration has to be made with details of pending criminal cases against the candidate, assets and liabilities of the candidate and the educational qualifications of the candidate.

Ø  Every candidate has to make legal declaration, giving his full details of:

Serious criminal cases pending against the candidate;

Details of the assets and the liabilities of the candidate and his/her family.

Education qualification of the candidate.

Ø  The above information should be made public. This provides an opportunity to the voters to make their decision on the basis of the information provided by the candidates. 

Election Campaign

Ø  Election campaigns in India takes place for two weeks, starting from the declaration of the final list of candidates contesting the elections and concluding 48 hours before the date of polling.

Ø  During this campaign, candidates reach out to the voters. Political leaders hold election meetings and rallies for informing the voters about their policies and persuading them to vote for them.

Ø  The main purpose of election is to give people chance to choose the representative, the govt. and policies they prefer.

Ø  Some successful slogans used during campaigns are “Garibi Hatao”(Remove Poverty) used by the Congress, led by Indira Gandhi in the year 1971 and “Save Democracy” used by Janata party in 1977 in the Loksabha elections; “Land to the Tiller’ used by The Left Front in West Bengal Assembly elections, 1977, etc. ‘Protect the Self-Respect of the Telugu’ was the slogan used by N.T. Rama Rao, the leader of Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections in 1983.

Ø  In an election campaign no party or candidate can:

1. Bribe/threaten the voters.
2. Influence the voters in the name of religion.
3. Use government resources for campaigning.
4. Spend more than 25 lakhs for the Lok Sabha elections and 10 lakhs for the Assembly elections.

If they do so, their election can be rejected by the court even after they have been declared elected.

In addition to the laws, all political parties in our country have agreed to a model of Code of Conduct for election campaigns.

According to this, no party or candidate can:

Ø  Use any place of worship for election propaganda.

Ø  Use government vehicles, aircrafts and government officials for elections; and

Ø  Once elections are announced, Ministers cannot lay foundation stones of any projects, take any big policy decisions or make any promises of providing any public facilities.

Polling and Counting of Votes

Ø  A person, with his name on the voter’s list can go to a nearby polling booth, get identified by the officials, get the mark on his finger, and cast the vote for the candidate of his choice.

Ø  Agents of the candidates are permitted to be seated inside the polling booths for ensuring that a fair voting takes place.

Ø  Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are used for casting votes instead of the ballot paper.

Ø  The machine shows the names of the candidates and their party symbols. Independent candidates too have their own symbols, allotted by election officials.

Ø  All the voter’s has to do is to press the button against the name of the candidates.

Ø  Counting of votes begin after few days of election.

Ø  The agents of all candidates are present there to ensure that the counting is done properly.

Ø  The candidate who secures the highest number of votes from a constituency is declared elected.

Ø  Televisions, radio and newspapers report this event.

What makes an election in India Democratic?

Ø  In India, elections are conducted by the Election Commission (EC). It is an autonomous body, independent of any governmental control.

Ø  The President of India appoints the Chief Election Commission (CEC). The CEC is neither answerable to the government nor to the President.

Ø  EC takes all decisions related to elections. It declares the election dates and also the results.

Ø  The EC implements the Code of Conduct and has the power of punishing those candidates/parties who violate.

Ø  During elections, the EC can order the government to follow some guidelines, to prevent use and misuse of governmental power to enhance its chances to win elections or to transfer some officials.

Popular Participation

Ø  Another way to check the quality of the election process is to see whether people participate in it with enthusiasm.

Ø  If the election process is not free or fair, people will not continue to participate in the exercise.

Ø  Let us come to the conclusions about the participation in India:

Ø  Voter turnout figures (indicates the percent of eligible voters who actually cast their vote) determine the extent of people’s participation in the elections. Compared to North America and Europe where the turnout has declined over the last 50 years, the figures for India either stayed stable or increased.

•      Compared to the USA where the richer and the privileged people vote the most, in India the majority of the voters are the poor, underprivileged and the illiterate people.

•      Common people in India attach a lot of importance to elections. They feel that through elections they can bring pressure on political parties to adopt policies and programmes favourable to them.

•      The interest of voters in election-related activities has been increasing over the years. One out of every seven voters is a member of a political party.

Acceptance of Election Outcome

Ø  If elections are not free or fair, it favours the powerful/ruling party. Ruling parties lose elections in India routinely, both in the state level and the national level.

Ø  Half of the sitting MPs and MLAs lose elections in India. This shows that the India voters are well aware of the functioning of the government and do not re-elect those representatives that fail in fulfilling their promises.

Ø  Candidates who are known to have spent a lot of money and muscle power often lose elections.

Ø  The outcome of the elections are normally accepted by the defeated party as the “people’s verdict”.

Challenges to Free and Fair Elections

Ø  Candidates with excessive money enjoy an unfair advantage over smaller parties/candidates.

Ø  Candidates with criminal records dominate others and remove them from the electoral race by using power and to secure a ‘ticket’ from major parties.

Ø  Some political parties are dominated by families who try to distribute tickets only to their relatives and family.

Ø  Very often elections offer little choice to ordinary citizens.

Ø  Small parties and independent candidates suffer huge disadvantage as compared to big parties.

Ø  Because of the above reasons, many organizations and activists have been demanding a reformed electoral system.