Describe the unfair practices that are practiced during elections
Answers
Electoral Fraud
Conducting elections that are fair, and are seen to be fair, poses a variety of technical challenges. The official procedures must be reliable. Voters must be assured that only eligible voters have voted, that they have been given the chance to cast their ballots under circumstances that guarantee freedom from pressure, and that their votes have then been properly recorded.
An initial problem is drawing up an accurate register of eligible voters - a register that manages to include those entitled to vote, while excluding voters who have died, or who are otherwise unqualified. There must be checks against impersonation - those presenting themselves at polling stations must be the voters they claim to be. In many parts of Africa and elsewhere, a finger of each voter is marked with indelible ink to ensure against voting twice. Voters must be permitted to cast their ballots without feeling under threat of violence or under an obligation to support a particular candidate or party. There must be measures to ensure against the stuffing of ballot boxes with ballot papers other than those legitimately cast. Ballot boxes need to be sealed before being used, and when the voting period is over. If ballot boxes are transported from the polling place to a central location where the votes are to be counted, there must be a guarantee that the same boxes that have left the polling station are the ones that arrive at the vote counting location. Integrity of vote counting and recording must be assured.
Where there is significant inefficiency or deliberate cheating by the authorities responsible for administering an election, the whole purpose of holding an election is negated. It is because electoral fraud is such a risk in countries emerging from non-democratic rule that the practice of mounting international election observer missions has burgeoned.
In developing countries, party agents have a potentially important role in observing the process of voting and in attending the counting of votes. However, experience in Tanzania, Ghana, and elsewhere suggests that when foreign governments or international organizations provide grants for party agents, those agents may, in many parts of the country, be more interested in collecting a fee than in carrying out their duties conscientiously. See also Political Parties as Election Monitors.
Electoral Corruption
Corrupt electoral practices include bribery of voters, raising campaign funds by making promises of illegal benefits (such as favourable government contracts) as payoffs to donors, bribing opposing candidates to withdraw, and (where there are legal limits on permitted campaign spending) fiddling election expenses in order to exceed the limit.
Such practices were common in Britain until the late nineteenth century. Vote buying is reputed to remain common in some countries, such as Taiwan. The secret ballot is the main device to restrict vote buying. If voters cast their ballots in secret, there is no way for candidates and party organizers to be certain that they will vote in the way that they have promised to those offering the bribes. However, in some communities, the secret ballot has proved insufficient to stamp out vote buying altogether.
Unfair Practices: Negative Campaigns and 'Dirty Tricks'
Whereas electoral fraud and electoral corruption are clearly undesirable and illegal, 'unfair practices' are harder to define and more controversial. What is 'unfair' to some is merely 'robust electioneering' or 'negative campaigning' to others.
Obviously, candidates have an incentive to present their opponents in the worst possible light. How is it possible to prevent candidates from telling deliberate lies and maligning their rivals without restricting the freedom of speech, and without allowing the government to dictate the terms of public debate?
Unfair Practices: Distribution of Television Time