Q) Enumerate 10 reforms needed in the electoral system of india?
Answers
·Candidates do not disclose all the cases of conviction and pending charges against them. They provide wrong and incomplete information regarding their assets, liabilities, and income and educational qualifications. People have the right to know whom they are voting for, is he genuine enough to be elected, can he be an effective, impersonal, visionary leader to lead them.
RPA should be amended to include all the items in affidavit and making falsedeclarations in connection with election to be an offence.
·The security deposit for candidates contesting for Lok Sabha is Rs.10000 and for State Assemblies, Council of States and Legislative Council is Rs.5000. Many non serious candidates file nomination only with an intention to disrupt the election process. This will bring unnecessary expenditure, stress, difficulty in maintenance of law and order, more ballot machines etc. As per recent amendment a candidate can contest from at most 2 constituencies. But in many cases candidate wins both, he selects any one and need arises for bye election leading to unnecessary expenditure.
EC proposes that candidate should contest from only one constituency and if not then such candidates should deposit Rs.500000 to Rs1000000 to bear bye election expenditure. The security deposit has to be increased to discourage non serious candidates.
·Criminalization of politics is the most critical flaw which is ruining all beauty of the system. A candidate becomes victorious by the muscle and money power rather than his works, conducts or ideals. They take the help of big business tycoons and criminals to win. In return they bias their power towards these anti- social elements which adversely affect our society. Now the criminals themselves are entering politics. The Law Breakers are the Law Makers! The long delay in our judicial system, increased corruption in public life, the first- past- the- post system in which 25% to 28% of valid votes assure victory in practice, prevalence of illiteracy and poverty are encouraging the criminal elements.
·Maintenance and auditing of accounts by political parties is not fully transparent. The Election expenditure incurred by political parties, friends and supporters of the candidate will not be counted as election expenditure of the candidate as per sub section 1 of section 77 of RPA. This section in the opinion of the SC has removed even the “fig leaf to hide the reality” of the impact of black money on the outcome of elections. In some instances, the Government functionaries resign and jump into active politics and gain votes based on their service as public servants. A good civil servant may not be guaranteed to be a good politician. They have just implemented the service rendered by the Government to the people.
Sub section 1 of section 77 of RPA must immediately be removed. Rules must be made to keep the officials out of active politics at least for five years of their retirement. No party must give ticket to a person unless he has served under the party for at least two years. This will check horse trading and prevent politics from becoming a business for the few.
·Exit polls and opinion polls will have impact on election results mainly when elections are held in phases. Govt sponsored advertisements where expenditure is incurred from public exchequer in favor of ruling party will be unfair. When the elections near, the ruling party announcing remissions to certain class to impress voters at the cost of tax payers money, dissatisfies the other class creating law and order problem. Political advertisements lead to lots of confusion. Here parties blame each other for failures, glorify the perfect world they are going to give us after coming to power.
Suitable restrictions must be imposed on publication of opinion polls. Advertisements of achievements of Government in any manner must be prohibited for six months prior to elections or from date of dissolution of the House. Suitable monitoring mechanism must be provided by the Government by amending Cable Television Network (Regulation) Rules, 1994.
·Bureaucratization of politics is also seen in the current arena. The parties can manage to get the officers in their favor to be the electoral officers in their constituencies. Sufficient measures have been taken by the Constitution itself to make the Election Commission an independent body. But still it is dependent on the Union in financial matters.