Democracy comes with various features like fundamental rights that States ensure for the people. On the other hand, the State demands some Duties from its citizens. But the most important feature of democracy is elections, which give a chance to people to elect their representative for a fixed term. In the same way three tier election process in India explains about top level to grass root democracy.
India, a Parliamentary democracy, means people elect their representative and representatives with absolute majority form the government. Governments serve for five years, until they have a majority of Lok-Sabha. Here, we are going to understand the various forms of election process in India.
History of Election process in India
The first election in India (particularly modern India) can be traced through the Indian Council Act of 1892. Here, the elections were Indirect, members were nominated through local bodies, such as municipalities, district boards, universities, and chambers of commerce.
The Indian Council Act of 1909 introduced the concept Separate electorate in India. The Government of India India Act of 1919, for the first time introduced the direct election in the Imperial Legislative council at centre and in Provincial Legislative councils. Although it was a limited franchise of qualification based on property, income, taxation, and education. It also Introduced the Bicameralism and Diarchy. The Government of India Act of 1935 expanded the election franchise to 10-12% but the qualification remained the same.
Elections After Independence
After the commencement of constitution, Republic India had its first general election in 1951-52. As India has a Federal structure the elections in States were held respectively. After Independence various institutions and functions came into picture and shaped election process in India. These are :-
Election commission of India
Article 324 of Indian Constitution explains about the Election commission of India. It is responsible for the election of Parliament, State Legislature, election of President and Vice president. Here, the first two elections are held through First past the post system, while the other two are held through Proportional representation. Election Commission performs various functions like announcement of election, preparation of election roll, recognition of political party, and the most important responsibility of Election Commission is, free and fair election.
Universal Adult Franchise
Article 325 of Indian Constitution explains that, no person is ineligible to enrol in election in India on the ground of race, religion, caste or sex. Means every citizen has the right to vote and it is a Constitutional right. Article 326 Provide the Adult Suffrage means any person above the age of 18 years is eligible to vote. Earlier the age limit was 21 years through 61st Constitutional Amendment of the age reduced to 18 years, this was a historical benchmark of Election process in India.
Constituencies and Delimitation
Constituency is a Geographical area, people of which choose a single representative for the Parliament or the State Legislature. On the other hand Delimitation is the process through which the area of India or any State is drawn into constituencies. The division of geographical area is mentioned under Article 82 for General Election and under Article170 for State Election. There shall be Delimitation after each census but under 84th Constitutional Amendment of 2001 the seats were fixed for both Parliament and State Legislature till 2026.
Ballet Paper Vs EVM
Nowadays, EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) is the main technological instrument used in elections in India. But earlier Ballet Paper was used in place of EVM, where Ballet Paper has the names of each candidate who is contesting election. Here, voters used to seal over the name of their respective candidate and drop it on drop box.
On the result day the vote of respective candidates were counted and the candidate getting maximum numbers of votes was declared winner. Now, EVM has reduced much more manpower because it just has Buttons in the name of the candidate, voters just press the button, his vote will be registered. On the day of counting, each machine displays its result within a few minutes. So, it also reduced the time.
Now, for more transparency, the Commission Introduced VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail). It is an external machine linked with EVM, It displays a paper printed in the name of the candidate whom the voter has voted for. And the paper itself is deposited in the drop box.
Devolution of Power
Transfer of power to a lower level is known as delegation of power but when it took the shape of Statutory provision or Constitutional Amendment it can be seen as ‘Devolution of Power’. With the 73rd Constitutional Amendment and 74th Constitutional Amendment some power was transferred to the local government of Panchayati Raj and Municipality respectively. For the election of these institutions, the State Election Commission was constructed. Under article 243k and 243za election of Panchayati Raj and Municipality is mentioned. All the Three tier of elections were held through the State Election Commission.
Representation of Peoples Act (RPA)
Article 327 empowers the Parliament to make laws on matters related to election of Parliament and State Legislature on the Other hand Under Article 328 State Legislature is empowered to make laws with respect to their legislature. Although major work on election related issues is done by Parliament.
Two laws which have substantial content related to election process in India were enacted by the parliament there are:-
RPA 1950
After independence this was the first law related to election matters. It mainly contains the issues related to voter, delimitation of constituencies, electoral roll, and allocation of seats. But this act was not sufficient for the election. So the next year Parliament enacted another law.
RPA 1951
Through this act the Government tried to answer the challenge of free and fair election. For this RPA 1951 explicitly explains the Conduct of election for example Code of conduct, Qualification and Disqualification of members, the act which can be treated as offense or Corrupt practice. This Act gives various powers to the election commission to manage and administer the election. On the other hand this Act provides a structural framework to the Electoral Democracy of India. The disputes related to election of President and Vice-President were made under the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court by RPA Amendment act of 1966. EVM in India was introduced through the Amendment of this act in1988.
Conclusion
Free and fair elections remained a challenge for Indian Democracy. There was a lot of news about the use of money and mussel power like Booth capturing, distribution of money on election day etc. these elements are a hurdle in democratization of democracy.
Another important thing is Mudda (the aspect on which people vote). It should be Development, equal distribution of resources, health, education, employment etc. But in India Mudda revolves around Religion, Caste, ethnicity, Language only. These issues are important from a Cultural perspective but issues like malnutrition, crime, Import & Export etc can be addressed through economic perspective. So, it’s up to the leader to go for right propaganda and people to choose the right issue.
Another important democratic principle is Answerability. It is a moral responsibility of the Election Commission to clear all doubts of political parties, media and individuals. Doubt is always not a fruitful thing for any kind of relationship. For example the EVM issue where the Election Commission doesn’t have any clear answer to satisfy the questioner. Institution should go for conversion of doubt to belief so the structure of Indian Democracy be concrete and strengthen the upcoming elections and election process in India. .
Author:- K.D.