Election Issues

Criminalization of Politics and Politicization of criminals
Legal and Judicial Provision	Article 102(1) and 191(1): disqualifies an MP and MLA on certain grounds Section 8 of RPA, bans convicted politicians, not facing trials Lily thomas case (2013), convicted politicians, with punishment more than 2 years, will be disqualified immediately
Facts	17th Lok Sabha: 2019 43% of MPs have criminal charges against them, 26% increment over 2014 29% have serious criminal charges against them Chances of winning for a criminal candidate in 13% whereas for normal it is 5% Committees: Santhanam committee report 1963: Political corruption more dangerous Vohra Committee (1993):  Padmanabhaiah: Criminalization of politics and police are closely linked Law Commission: 255 Report on Electoral Reforms 170th Report on Electoral reforms.
Reason:	Vote Bank: As a voter not evolved, manipulation, purchase, and expenditure by criminals leads to Criminal and Politicians nexus Loop holes in the functioning of elections, MCC openly flouted by election commission Denial of justice and delayed trials, only judgements in 11% cases of transferred to FTC regulation on appointments to offices within the party.
Impact	Law breakers get elected as law makers. Loss of public faith in judicial machinery Tainted democracy Self-perpetuating
SC observation, 2014 SC Judgement	Requires urgent attention Parliament must make law that persons facing serious criminal charges don't enter political stream All subordinate courts to give their verdicts involving legislators within a year. Criminal antecedent of candidates must be widely publicized Internal democracy in parties Transparency in their functioning and accoutability
Way forward:	Çurb the high cost of campaigning LCI report on disqualification of candidates at framing state Filing a false affidavit should be a corrupt practice ECI measures to break the nexus Control of black money Quick and exemplary actions against criminal politics completion of trial with in 1 year Disqualification of charge-sheeted candidates Constitutional provisions for the broader norms and conduct of inner activities of political parties Transparency in fund raising and expenditure Civil society activism paid news ---electoral offence more powers of EC 2nd ARC Ethics in Governance Cases NOTA :PUCL v/s UOI 2013 ADR v/s UOI 2002 : Right to be get informed (Additional affidavit) Directed the HC to suspend only sentence and not a conviction To safeguard section 8 of RPA (disqualification on conviction for 6 years + sentence)

RPA,51
Corrupt practices and electoral offenses	Corrupt practices (can be brought to court of law only after completion of elections) Sec 123: Abhiram Singh Case Bribery Sec 123 (3) appeals for votes on grounds of race, religion and community would be corrupt practice criticism: difficult to define what is religious appeals against minorities interest (how to mobilize) Practical difficulties like the name of Akali dal Parliament should follow up and come forward to make laws for this so that any kind of election malpractices can be prevented Electoral offenses (can be brought to Court of law during the election) filing the false affidavit  failure to maintain secrecy of voting  causing disturbance of electoral meeting  Booth capturing  Media Sec 126 of RPA: Media Paid news: propaganda Prohibits publication of ads by parties in electronic media and recently added social media(but still not controlled effectively) Need for adding Print media these are electoral malpractices but not the offence Taken: more awareness by ECI at lower level officials Expenditure observer Media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) Solution: Law commission: Define it Paid news as Electoral offense leading to disqualification transparency : media to disclose Bribery during election as cognizable offense
Exit Polls	sample survey conducted shortly after polling of vote to predict the election result and voting behaviour Issues  Multi-phase polling : publication of exit polls before completion of polling could disturb the free and fair nature of elections  distorting the level playing field by disinformation,  Accuracy is questioned RPA, 1951 : imposed a ban on publication of exit polls till at least half an hour after the polling of last phase criticism  against the freedom of media  against the rights of citizen to informed choices  if misused can be regulated but not banned Regulation  name of agency, date, time, sample space, sponsors and methodology must be in public domain  % of possible error must be open  Transparency
Opinion polls	sample survey conducted in advance of the polling  in order to assess the issue of public importance influencing voting behaviour RPA,1951: no opinion poll can be published 48 hours before the end of polling day.

EVM	Strengthen democracy by increasing participation and reducing the malpractices Administrative, operational efficiency, reach, etc Economic efficiency legitimacy of the election
Functioning	EVM consists of a controlling unit and balloting unit Manufactured by ECIL and BEL History: 1st used in 1982 Kerala Assembly 2004 1st time used in Lok Sabha Elections.
Safety Features	Non-reprogrammable: IC chip that is one time programmable No external communication, are not wired to any external device Secure source code, developed by inhouse engineers Voter can cast only one vote other vote when presiding officer enables the ballot on CU Time stamping of votes, so there is no system generated votes Secure against post manufacturing tampering, shut down on tampering Procedural checks and balances: like trial run, random allocation, etc
For ballot System	Three pillars of fair and free election: Transparency, Verifiability and Secrecy: Not Transparent: Votes doesn't whom his vote is cast until introduction of VVPAT Only the vote number can be verified and not the voting choice Booth wise counting which allows for discerning voting pattern. Possibility of hacking: creates mistrust among people Though provided with training officers don’t pay attention to EVMs
In favour of EVM	Ease of use and accessible Safe and secure: with events like booth capturing, rigging and stuffing ballot boxes with ink reduced Faster results and builds trust, within a day Complete auditing of election at every stage, checking and trial runs Eliminate possibility of doubtful and invalid votes Reduction in use of paper during elections
Way Forward:	There have been cases of malfunctioning but no cases of tampering EC held EVM hackathon challenge Introduction of VVPAT in all constituency 100% deployment of totalizer machines Regular demonstration on working of EVM Long term, permanent secretariat and officers Other countries examples like Netherlands banned but they are networked devices In Germany constitution not allowed to use then SC banned RPA amended in India to use EVMs In USA : Direct Recording System are networkable

Totalizer

Introduction of Totaliser machines: It will increase the secrecy of voting by counting votes of many booths together. SC ordered for implementing a totalizer mechanism  Pros: Voter: reduce pre-pole and post-pole voter's harassment  Societal: will avoid caste based politics Democracy: strengthening secrecy Cons: Party: difficulty in booth level management and strategy Solution: can manage using following ways poll survey cool-off period for 1 year voters  Integrate with Aadhar card (National Electoral roll purification and authentication process) Block Chain Technology EVM Machines New Enrollment Disclosure of Information of Political Parties and Candidates Electoral Roll purification and Authentication Drive VVPTS (voter Verification and Paper Trail System) National Electoral Roll Purification 2016 : correct and enrol Use of GIS National Voter Service Portal (NVSP)

NRI voting	Why 10 million strong community Their views have impact on policies Decisive power SC: e-Postal ballot for NRIs is allowed
FPTP Proportional representation Hybrid Two ballot system	advantages: Clear link between constituencies and its representative easy to understand counting is simple stable government Easy to implement Problems poor representation can win with only 30% of votes small groups may go unrepresented wastage of votes greater use of money and muscle power increase in criminality Undermines the legitimacy of candidate and parties Law commission: Hybrid system 25% of seats with Proportional representatives
increasing number of political parties and candidates	cause: participatory upsurge backward class mobilization literacy and youth awareness Promotion by EC Coalition politics Fringe candidates Implication: confuses the voters EVM can accommodate only 63 Procedural problems Candidates winging with minorities votes Solution: increase the security deposits Increase proposer's requirement
Direct democracy	Right to recall: too for better accountability voters can recall on ground of non-performance Switzerland, UK, states in USA, municiplaities in MP, Raj Challenges: frequent election more expenditure---more black money instability regional interest will over power Populist pressure Not feasible and impractical  misuse Referendum: citizens get to vote directly on specific issues rather then their representative approval through a popular vote (proposed by the government) Switzerland, members of EU civil society demanding a referendum commission Against: tyranny of majority mosque building in Swiss expertise Brexit feasibility Popular opinion > wisdom way forward: selective issues Initiative kind of referendum proposed by the electoral  Swiss Plebiscite referendum on the question of right to self-determination issues: should any region or state like JnK enjoys the right to self determination no: no country in the world explicitly recognizes this Moscow declaration 1993: in a democratic, secular and constitutional government no need for this  India has signed this since this has the potential to destroy the territorial integrity especially of  diverse country it can not be allowed
Multiphase voting	good but criticism: MCC prolonged---paralysis Voting pattern is distorted Security deployment of central  law and order of the state disrupted bypassing the state police

Elections:	Changing Nature of Elections in India
What	Electoral campaigning is becoming more personality-based, focus on leaders rather than local issues Narrative capture and diversion from local issues Change in voters attitude, as issue of central leadership is central in determining votes Weak political culture and weak opposition. Back from era of coalition to era of clear majority
Concern	Undermining parliamentary democracy, local representative for local reasons No genuine separation of power, because votes are due to name of leaders Legislature cannot hold executive accountable Person changing parties, win due to central leadership Populism and personality based politics weaken the spirit of democracy
Way forward	Reforming electoral process, inner party democracy Transparent funding Role of media to educate voters.

Issues in Delimitation	India has lowest number of MPs relating to its population
Background	Article 81: Ratio of population to seats should be as equal as possible Article 82: Delimitation be carried out after every census Froze delimitation in 1976, by 42nd CA, and again in 2001 by 84CA Increase in seats and change only after 2026 Wide discrepancy, from 50K to 30mn in a constituency
Issues	Malapportionment in Democracy Dilution of the principle of One Citizen one vote, (Raj 1MP 30lakh, TN 18L) Skewed representation across the constituency, 5 smallest 8 lakh voters and five largest had 1.2 cr Increased burden on representative, represents a large section of people Representation crisis, because MP cannot reach out to everyone Lead to division among people,
Implications	Concerns of family planning, because states with low population get low seats Control of presiding officers of house over members Working of the house will be severely restrained
Way forward	Delimitation should be carried out after every census Need to debate on how to deal with issue

Vote Bank Politics	Using vote back politics during general election 2019
BG	Used in 1955 by MN Srinivas noted sociologist It denotes voting on the basis of caste, class, sect, language, region, religion, etc.
Negative side:	Reduces the identity of citizen Used as a tool to win election Ignores voting based on performance Allures party towards winability of candidates Voter Appeasement, through use of freebies Could lead to bad economics, like loan wavier, etc Halts the long term vision for the nation, Creates fractures in the society
Positive Side:	Increases both the individual and collective bargaining power Helps address diverse needs of various section of population Leads to effective representation in legislature Help safeguard constitutional provisions like manual scavenging Help better distribution of resources through welfare economics Make parties more and more inclusive
Way forward	Vote bank politics become ugly when it is used to manipulate the demands of one group Vote bank should be on issues and people should decide what should be the discourse of an election

Feminization of Indian Politics	Strong Positive socio-economic and political impacts of feminization of politics in India
Need for women	Constitutional mandate: To secure justice and equality Indicator of efficacious growth of democracy India has ratified the international convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) Controlling corrupt practices Women candidates have lesses probability of having criminal charges Rate of corruption is lower among women Economic aspect: Women MP show higher level of efficacy in implementation of schemes
In India politics	Various form of participation MP/MLA: India ranks 148 globally in women representation Political party candidates/Party office bearer Increased participation of women in election campaigns Voter turnout: Increased to 65.6 in 2014
Restricting factors:	Socio-cultural: Reduces the pool of available women,
Strategies:	Women reservation in politics Improve capacity building, gender training and awareness raising Improve their access to education.