Reflecting upon General Elections 2019 - Electoral Process

What is the issue?

The general elections for the 17th Lok Sabha saw some serious concerns being raised on the functioning of the Election Commission (EC).

A democracy is only as credible as the strength of the institutions fundamental to its legitimacy.

What were the key contentions?

• Long election - Questions were raised about the prolonged election of seven phases.
• The EC has always maintained that the most pressing concern is voter security, for which the Central armed police forces are deployed.
• But due to their limited availability, they had to be deployed on rotation, and so is the multi-phase election.
• If the numbers of these forces were adequate, the EC could conduct elections in one day.
• MCC - There was an unprecedented attack on the EC for being soft on the top leadership of the BJP for repeated violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
• The MCC is much more difficult to operationalise in the age of social media and in a prolonged election nature.
• The cost-benefit analysis of multi-phase versus short phase elections in the face of such new challenges should be done afresh.
• Money power - It is becoming more and more expensive to contest elections.
• In this backdrop, the role of money power was alarming in this election and the problem of black money was alive.
• Money, drugs/narcotics, liquor, precious metals and freebies worth around Rs. 3,500 crore were seized this time (Rs. 1,200 crore in 2014).
• According to EC, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh were the top 5 States/UTs that accounted for the total seizures.
• A cause for worry is that drugs/narcotics formed a large part of the seizures, with Gujarat topping the list in this.
• VVPAT - The EC was questioned for its stand on the sample size for Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) verification.
• The Supreme Court had advised the EC to increase the mandatory random counting to 5 VVPATs per Assembly segment.
• This laid emphasis on better voter confidence and credibility of electoral process.
• As the election progressed, the Opposition made two more demands:
  1. the 5 machines must be counted in the beginning
  2. in case of even one mismatch, all machines in the Assembly segment must be counted
• The EC examined these proposals only to reject them as being unfeasible.
• Rather than being on the defensive, the EC should have discussed this issue with political parties, with an open mind.
• Judiciary - The Supreme Court's repeated interventions (as many as 6) during the elections have long-term implications.
• Notably, Article 329 of the Constitution bars courts from interfering in electoral matters after the election process has been set in motion.
• But the court had to intervene repeatedly for the much needed course correction.
• The court expressed displeasure over the EC’s stand when it submitted that it was “toothless” and “powerless” to act on hate speeches.
• On SC setting EC a deadline to act on this, the EC took strong and unprecedented action against some political leaders.
• It debarred them from campaigning for up to 3 days by invoking Article 324.
• This was laudable, but when it came to acting on complaints against the Prime Minister and the BJP president, it reacted differently.
• Dissent in EC - It came to light that at least one Election Commissioner had dissented in 5 out of 11 EC decisions concerning MCC violations. Click here to know more.
• Dissent is good news for a constitutional body as it is a healthy sign of objective deliberation and democratic functioning.
• His demand for his dissenting note to be made public was worthy of positive consideration.

What lies ahead?

• The election process in India that deserved to be remembered as a subject of national pride became mired in several controversies.
• The role of money power, paid and fake news, communal polarisation and hate rhetoric pose serious challenges to the very foundations of India's electoral system.
• India must introspect over these issues and find answers.

Source: The Hindu