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May 26 - June 7, 2019
The analysis also includes mention of the paradoxical issues like the great elections yet flawed democracy, election as mother of corruption, the rise of the rich in politics, participation without representation, protest and participatory politics, the election as a festival and not a funeral, and various other controversies, bouquets and brickbats.
Democracy continues to be a work in progress towards the ultimate goal of freedom of choice and freedom from poverty.
Switzerland only granted women the equal right to vote as recently as 1971.
Muhlberger refers to Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander, which describes eyewitness accounts of ‘free and independent Indian communities’ existing with royal dynasties.
This inscription, dated around 920 AD in the reign of Parantaka Chola, gives astonishing details about the constitution of wards, the qualification of candidates standing for elections, the disqualification norms, the mode of election, the constitution of committees with elected members, the functions of these committees, the power to remove the wrongdoer, etc…’ The villagers even had the right to recall the elected representatives if they failed in their duty!
two basic elements in the core vision of the Indian Constitution: (i) preserving and defending national unity by establishing strong national institutions that work to promote the spirit of democracy, and (ii) providing space for a self-correcting social revolution to improve the living conditions of its citizens.
In the first general elections, about 84 per cent were unable to read and write,
Bangladesh experienced a long spell of military rule and is now attempting to recover its place as a relatively stable democracy in the region. In its short history of four decades, the country saw its first popular government overthrown, two of its presidents slain in military coups and as many as nineteen other failed coup attempts.
The elections in 2013 were a milestone in the sense that a democratically elected government gave way to another elected government for the first time in its history.
Bhutan’s fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, recently took the initiative of holding elections and converting the country into a constitutional monarchy even against popular sentiment. It has been suggested that the king was immensely inspired by his large democratic neighbour to the south in thinking of imposing democracy on his people when they all loved and aspired for his enlightened rule.
to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part since different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens.
Giving an example he has explained that if a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority would be insecure.
Electoral tension sometimes accelerates into civil war and violence, as was seen in Burundi in 1993, Liberia in 1997 and Kenya and Nigeria a few years ago.
in 1986, when the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were widely perceived to be rigged in favour of a particular political formation, a long spell of insurgency followed resulting in the loss of life of thousands of innocent citizens.
Amidst demands from all quarters including the main political parties for postponing the elections to avoid apprehended bloodshed, a daring initiative by the Election Commission to go ahead with the elections again transformed the situation almost as dramatically.
It is estimated that 80 per cent of campaign finance in India is coming not from party members and followers but from corporates and big business houses with the aim of eventually influencing policy-making processes.
The three general elections held in close succession towards the end of the 1990s threw up four major trends: (i) the decline of a dominant pan-national party, (ii) the emergence of regional parties in a national role, (iii) multi-party coalition politics and (iv) the ethnicization of the political culture, with each party claiming and often surviving on sectarian support.
Significantly, in a number of states, 50 per cent of the seats in these village assemblies are now reserved for women.
A glaring example is Kerala, a state well known for consistently high human development indicators. Here, in the elections to the 140 member state assembly in 2011, an astonishing 127 constituencies witnessed more women voting than men. Yet, the state assembly has only seven women members.
Jayaprakash Narayan pleaded for a shift from a party-based democracy to a party-less democracy.
‘Politics without Principles’.
That is the reason why even dictatorial regimes love to use terms like ‘republic’, ‘democracy’ and ‘elections’ to demonstrate and deceive the world into believing that supreme power in their regimes is held not by them individually but by the people or their elected representatives.
by The Economist, India, despite its credible elections, stood seventh in the list of fifty-four ‘flawed democracies’ in the world.
One of the shocking findings of the survey was that an overwhelming proportion (two-thirds) of the respondents, including many from Western democracies, said that their country was not governed by the will of the people.
from Plato’s Republic: ‘Mankind will never see an end of trouble until […] lovers of wisdom come to hold political power or the holders of power […] become lovers of wisdom.
the original proposal under Article 289 was that there should be one Commission to deal with the elections to the Central Legislature, both the Upper and Lower Houses, and that there should be a separate Election Commission for each Province and each State, to be appointed by the Governor or the Ruler of the State. Comparing that with the present Article 289, there is undoubtedly a radical change. This Article proposes to centralise the election machinery in the hands of a single Commission to be assisted by Regional Commissioners, not working under the Provincial Government, but working under
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the ECI, which has been charged with the constitutional responsibility of conducting free and fair elections, is also a part of the same basic structure of the Constitution.
The Westminster model, however, has hereditary monarchy while in India the President is elected, as are members of the Upper House unlike nominated members of the House of Lords.
the Commission was established as a single-member body with only the CEC as its head. This continued till 16 October 1989 when, for the first time, two Election Commissioners, S.S. Dhanoa and V.S. Seigell, in addition to R.V.S. Peri Sastri, CEC, were appointed by the President. This arrangement proved to be short-lived, as on 1 January 1990 the two posts of Election Commissioners were abolished by another presidential order and the Commission was again converted to a single-member body.
When Janata Dal (JD) wanted the wheel with twenty-four spokes as its symbol, Dhanoa and Seigell gave it only three. Since it seemed to resemble the logo of the Youth Congress, Dhanoa agreed to increase the number of the spokes to six. Dissatisfied with the decision, the fiery Devi Lal, a member of the JD delegation, stomped out of the Commission’s room thundering, ‘We shall be back in a couple of months and you will be the first to be thrown out.’ This was one poll ‘promise’ that was honoured. On 1 January 1990, the President issued a notification reverting to a single-member Commission.
The Supreme Court, however, did not agree with this contention and upheld the presidential order holding that the creation and abolition of posts was the prerogative of the executive, and Article 324 (2) left it to the President to fix and appoint such number of Election Commissioners as he may from time to time determine.
when vast powers are exercised by an institution which is accountable to none, it is politic to entrust its affairs to more hands than one. It helps to assure judiciousness and want of arbitrariness.
Taking a cue from these observations by the Supreme Court, the President again converted the Election Commission into a multi-member body with effect from 1991. This law created a distinction between the CEC and the Election Commissioners in terms of status, retirement and perquisites.
such Regional Commissioners have never been appointed except at the time of the first general elections in 1951–52.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) of the United States of America consists of six commissioners who are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. They can be members of political parties, but not more than three commissioners can be members of the same political party. They serve for a term of six years but two of them retire every two years. The Electoral Commission of South Africa consists of five members, one of whom is a judge, appointed by the President on the recommendation of the National Assembly. The National Assembly makes its recommendations on the
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He serves until the age of retirement, that is, sixty-five years. He can be removed from office by the Governor General after a joint request following a majority vote by the House of Commons and the Senate.
In India, Election Commissioners are appointed by the government of the day without any consultation mechanism. The Law Minister puts up the file to the Prime Minister who recommends a name to the President. After his approval, the law ministry issues the notification. It is a miracle that the incumbents so appointed have commanded the trust of the nation.
Election Commissioners once appointed cannot be removed from office except on the recommendation of the CEC.
The Parliament enacted the CEC and other Election Commissioners (Conditions of Service) Act, 1991 with effect from 25 January 1991. Under this Act, the CEC was given tenure of six years or upto the age of sixty-five years, whichever was earlier, and his salary and allowances and other perquisites were to be the same as those for a judge of the Supreme Court; whereas the Election Commissioners were given tenure of six years but upto the age of sixty-two years and their salaries and allowances were equated with those of a judge of a High Court.
Under the amended Act, the CEC and Election Commissioners were brought at par in all respects—they all now have terms of six years or upto the age of sixty-five years, whichever is earlier, and they are all given the same salaries and allowances and other perquisites as a judge of the Supreme Court. Further, they have equal powers in decision-making and wherever unanimity cannot be reached in deciding a particular matter, the opinion of the majority prevails.
the Constitution provides that the CEC can be removed from office only in like manner and on like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court—in other words, by the process of impeachment laid down in the Constitution. It is, however, paradoxical that the same protection in the matter of their removal from office has not been provided to the Election Commissioners. Only limited protection is available to them in that they cannot be removed from office except on the recommendation of the CEC.
the Commission has also been conferred the responsibility of tendering its opinion to the President and Governors of states on questions of disqualification of sitting members of Parliament and state legislatures. The opinion of the Election Commission in such questions to the President under Article 103 (2) in relation to sitting members of Parliament and to the Governor of a state under Article 192 (2) relating to sitting members of the state legislature, is binding on them and they have to act according to such opinion, without reference to their council of ministers.
the Commission has the exclusive jurisdiction to decide on disputes between rival groups or factions of a recognized national or state party under the provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
The FEC’s role is confined to administering and enforcing the Federal Election Campaign Act which governs the financing of federal elections.
in India, the ECI conducts all elections up to the state legislature with only elections to local bodies being the jurisdiction of state ECs. The delimitation of constituencies is also not the jurisdiction of the ECI.
Polls were held in various phases, starting with the first phase on 25 October 1951 in the high altitudes of Chini and Pangi assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh before the onset of winter and closure of the high passes in those regions. In all, polls were held throughout India on sixty-eight days, that is, in sixty-eight phases; ending with the last phase of elections on 21 February 1952 in Uttar Pradesh.
Every contingency could not be foreseen or anticipated with precision. That is why there is no hedging in Art. 324.
It is in exercising such inherent powers under Article 324 that the Election Commission promulgated the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 governing, inter alia, the recognition of political parties as national and state parties.
On the recommendation of the Commission, Section 159 was amended in 1997 to provide that the services of employees of universities established by the central, provincial or state acts or any other institution, concern or undertaking, including a government company, controlled or financed wholly or substantially by funds provided directly or indirectly by the central government or state government, could also be utilized for polling duties.
some institutions pleaded that their officers were subject to their disciplinary control and the Commission could not directly seek explanations from them or subject them to any disciplinary proceedings for any lapse on their part in performing their election related duties.
