The Hindu : A mammoth exercise

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Sunday, Mar 07, 2004

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A mammoth exercise

Organising elections in India is a huge task, say J. Venkatesan and Vinay Kumar.

THE BATTLE lines have been drawn for `Elections 2004.' The world's largest democracy will go to the polls in four phases, from April 20 to May 10, for 543 constituencies to the 14th Lok Sabha and 697 constituencies to four State Assemblies. The mammoth exercise, involving an electorate of over 675 million people and 7,00,000 polling stations, and requiring about 35 lakh polling staff, can easily be described as the world's largest organised operation. The exercise will deploy lakhs of Central forces and the Election Commission of India, established under Article 324 of the Constitution, is expected to incur a whopping expenditure of Rs.1100 crores on its conduct. For the first time, electronic voting machines will be used in all the parliamentary constituencies; as many as 10,75,000 EVMs will be pressed into service.

Elections 2004 will see the number of polling stations come down to 700,121 from 774,651 during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. This is because the average number of voters in each polling station is now between 900 and 1000, as against 750. While the maximum number of polling booths, 101,678, is being set up in Uttar Pradesh for 10.83 crore voters — highest in the country — Lakshadweep Islands will have just 40 polling stations for the lowest number of voters — 37,926.

The E.C., an independent body, had only one Chief Election Commissioner initially. It is now a three-member body with one Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners.

The Supreme Court, in a number of cases, has defined the scope of Article 324. In Mohinder Singh Gill's case in 1978, it held that the entire responsibility of holding the national and State elections is vested with the E.C. Superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of elections, it said, included powers, duties and functions of many sorts, administrative or other, depending on the circumstances. The apex court has reiterated this position often.

The laws that govern the conduct of elections are the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951, and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. Judicial pronouncements have brought greater clarity to these laws.

Over the years, the E.C.'s impartiality and enforcement of India's remarkably strict election laws have come in for praise from all quarters.

The appointment of T.N. Seshan as CEC in 1991 reinvigorated the Election Commission and curbed the illegal manipulation of India's electoral system. Subsequent CECs introduced reforms to curtail improprieties, discipline errant polling officers, and fought for the right to deploy paramilitary forces in sensitive areas. The Commission has forced the candidates to take the Model Code of Conduct — a set of guidelines, intended to provide a level-playing field to all the political parties — seriously, and strengthened its supervisory machinery. It has ensured that the purity and sanctity of the electoral rolls are maintained for holding free and fair polls. The Commission has made photo identity cards compulsory for all voters to prevent electoral fraud. More than 455 million identity cards have been distributed till date, covering around 70 per cent of the voter population. Those who have not been issued photo cards can also vote, provided their name is accurately listed in the electoral roll, by using alternative identification instruments.

The Commission's efforts to prevent criminalisation of politics, over the years, has paid rich dividends with the Supreme Court holding that a candidate, at the time of filing his nomination, should furnish information about his criminal antecedents, if any, his assets and liabilities and educational qualification. Faced with widespread criticism from political parties, the Centre amended the Representation of the People Act introducing Section 33 B, saying that information on assets and liabilities be disclosed by the winning candidate to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Speaker of the respective Legislative Assemblies. But the apex court quashed the amendment.

The Court held that exposure to public scrutiny was one of the known means for ensuring honest governance. A new element has been added to this ruling by the Delhi High Court's direction to the E.C. to widely publicise the financial liabilities of MPs or MLAs to public agencies. The Commission has made it mandatory for the candidates to file their expenditure statements within 45 days of the completion of the election process. Since April 2001, it has disqualified about 3,300 candidates from contesting elections for not filing expenditure statements in time.

For the first time, the E.C. has decided to set up a helpline in all the State headquarters. It will help voters locate their names in the electoral rolls, identify their polling booths and provide other relevant information. It can also be used for lodging poll-related complaints.

Elections 2004 being the first all-EVM affair, the Commission has utilised the services of two major industrial enterprises — Electronic Corporation of India, Hyderabad and Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore — for the design and development of EVMs. These machines were used for the first time during the elections to the Kerala Assembly in May 1982. EVMs were used in 1982-83 in 10 other constituencies spread over eight States, including the Northeast.

In November 1998, the E.C. introduced EVMs in the elections to three State Assemblies — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Encouraged by its success, the Commission used EVMs during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections in 46 parliamentary constituencies spread over 17 States and Union Territories.

The use of EVMs means simple and easy operation and fast counting. It ensures total voting secrecy. While a single ballot unit takes in the names of 16 candidates, by connecting four ballot units the EVM can accommodate 64 candidates in a single election. The saving in paper is about 7,000 tonnes.

The E.C. is launching training and education programmes for familiarising the polling staff, personnel and general public with the functioning of the EVMs. Complaints of EVM breakdown and malfunctioning have not been many in the past, according to Commission officials.

A media campaign to educate the voters is also under way.

Another first in these elections will be the appointment of expenditure observers who are expected to keep an eye on a candidate's poll expenses. Though the general observers submit their reports to the Commission and these are supposed to be scrutinised, not much is known about the action taken on them.

Deployment of Central security forces for the conduct of elections is another important issue.

Describing it as "very vital," the former CEC, M.S. Gill, says he had institutionalised the mechanism and formed a Standing Committee of the State's Chief Electoral Officer, the State Director-General of Police and the Home Secretary to oversee the deployment. It did away with the stationing of the Central forces on the whims and fancies of State Governments.

The planning requires a minimum of four weeks of intensive discussion in working groups, comprising the Deputy Election Commissioners and the heads of the Central police forces. On an average, 400 to 500 companies of Central forces are mobilised during general elections. This is in addition to their deployment in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

As the Commission has the power of "supervision, control and discipline" over the polling staff, including police personnel, under Section 28 of the Representation of the People Act, it can evolve a strategy for effective deployment of the forces in sensitive pockets. "The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in a State is the key person. It is the CEO who along with the State Home Secretary and DGP decides on the deployment of Central forces," says Dr. Gill.

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