Orissa Review * January - 2006
Need for Electoral Reforms
Siddhartha Dash
Elections are the life and blood of modern
democracies. The health and vitality of
parliamentary democracy is sustained by ensuring
free, fair and peaceful elections where the verdict
of the people finds full expression. The Indian
electoral system was free from any major flaw till
the fourth general elections in 1967. The distortions
in its working appeared, for the first time, in the
fifth general elections, 1971 and multiplied in the
successive elections, especially those held in the
eighties and thereafter.
Money power has played decisive role in
elections in the past and continues to do so with
greater force today. Suggestion with regard to
putting curb on money power is that of state
funding. This practice of state funding for political
parties to reimburse their poll expenses is
prevalent in some countries like Germany,
France, Israel, Canada, Japan, USA etc. In this
system, political parties polling a minimum
percentage of votes are entitled to subsidy by the
state.
The Tarkunde Committee Report of 1975,
the Goswami Committee Report of 1990, the
Election Commission s Recommendations in
1998 and Indrajit Gupta Committee Report of
1998 produced comprehensive set of
recommendations regarding electoral reforms. A
few reforms have been implemented like the voting
age has been lowered from 21 years to 18 years;
increase in the amount of security deposit from
Rs.500 to Rs.10,000 for general constituencies
and Rs.250 to Rs.5,000 for reserved
constituencies; introduction of electronic voting
machine; and making obligatory for candidates
for elections to the Lok Sabha and State
Assemblies to declare their criminal background,
educational qualifications and economic status at
the time of filing nomination papers. But a lot has
to be done.
Since winning election has become an end
in itself, in addition to money power, muscle power
has also become an important factor. This is done
in two ways: a) by preventing the voters of weaker
sections of society on their way to polling stations
for casting their ballots; and b) by forcibly
capturing polling booths for marking and inserting
ballot papers in the ballot box of the candidate of
choice. The most significant outcome of the use
of muscle power in elections has been that many
local muscle men, and criminals whose services
were earlier sought for extortion or votegatherings are now directly entering the fray and
are elected in the process. In order to deter the
criminal elements entering the electoral field, law
should make it mandatory for a person convicted
by a court of law and sentenced to imprisonment
for six months or more to be debarred from
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Orissa Review * January - 2006
votes polled in this category is more than 50
percent of the total votes polled, all candidates
should be debarred from contesting elections for
at least six years by the Election Commission and
the election be declared void. The election should
then be re-conducted with fresh candidates.
contesting polls for a period of the sentence
imposed and an additional period of six years.
Any person who is accused of any offence
punishable with imprisonment for five years or
more should be disqualified, even when her/his
trial is pending provided that the competent court
of law has taken cognizance of the offence and
framed the charges against him.
Besides making elections clean, there is
utmost necessity of prescribing a maximum age
limit and minimum academic qualifications for the
candidates. Those want to compete in the
elections should be made to sit in a test of
knowledge of the Constitution, country s
economy, freedom struggle and geography. The
Election Commission of India should conduct this
test. Certain minimum marks in these subjects
should be fixed to qualify for becoming a politician.
Psychological tests should also be introduced to
judge their overall personality. If the bureaucrats
are chosen from among the best in India, why not
the leaders ? There should be a retirement age
for politicians. Often, people above the age of 60
are not issued driving licenses. The logic,
according to experts, is that the decision-making
ability starts declining after the age of 60. But in
our country, most of the leaders of this age are
driving the government.
Another deficiency of the system is that
inadequate representations of women in
legislatures. Instead of following the reservation
rule with the possibility of further internal
reservation, all recongnised political parties should
fix a specified percentage of women candidates,
in all state and parliamentary elections, that they
may take part in.
Political parties play a pivotal role before
elections, during elections and in the formation of
government after elections. The working of
political parties is however not regulated either
by constitutional or by legal provisions. One of
the most critical needs of the time is to reform
political parties and to make them open,
democratic and accountable. Political parties
should be made more accountable by being
forced to do internal audits of their finances and
producing evidence of internal democracy.
There is also need of reorganization of
constituencies. In Delhi itself, while one
Parliamentary Constituency consists of four lakh
voters another constituency has as many as 22
lakh voters. This large differences in terms of
population must be done away with. Some of the
constituencies are continued as reserved since the
inception of the Constitution. The continued
reservation of seats for specified castes has been
a cause of complaint in some parts of the country.
Reserved constituencies for certain castes and
tribes could be rotated after each census on the
basis of strength of their population. Such a step
would possibly remove the grievances of the
Another reform that may be suggested is
that government in poll bound states should resign
before polls. The cabinet ministers of states going
to polls, barring Chief Minister, Finance and Home
Ministers, should resign after elections are
announced. This suggestion seeks to defuse
misuse of government money and administrative
powers to influence elections.
Voters should be given the right to cast a
negative vote. In every ballot paper or ballot
electronic voting machine, there should be an
option; none of the above , and if the number of
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Orissa Review * January - 2006
on the part of electoral machinery at all levels, the
political parties, the candidates and electorate. An
independent press and enlightened public opinion
have no substitute to push through reform. The
participation of the youth in election plays a major
role in restoring our faith in democracy. Finally,
there should be proper mechanism, fully functional
and fully equipped to fight with any triviality.
general population of perpetually being denied
representation in the legislature.
Reform is not single time effort but a
continuous process. It would be appropriate if a
standing committee, comprising members of
parliament and experts in election laws, is
constituted to go into the question, as and when it
arises, and to suggest changes wherever
necessary, in the election law to the government.
The success of the reform would depend
upon the working of and adherence to, the system
Siddhartha Dash lives at N4/205, IRC Village
Bhubaneswar-751015.
Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik felicitating Shri Bipin Bihari Rath
on the occasion of 78th Birth Anniversary of Late Bhikari Ch. Panda at Sahid
Bhavan, Cuttack on 22.12.2005. Shri Samir Dey, Minister, Higher Education,
Public Grievances and Pension Administration is also present.
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