Polls a vibrant fete of democracy

Chief Election Commissioner (CEO) Dr Nasim Zaidi presented a copy of the coffee table book, ‘Unfolding Indian Elections-journey of the living democracy,’ published by Election Commission of India and was unveiled on the 7th National Voters’ day on 25th January 2017, to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. The book is an attempt to “experience the collective memory of elections held in India in furtherance of Indian tradition of democracy.”

Elections are a festival of democracy that cuts across ethnic, linguistic, regional and religious barriers. The book covers the evolutionary pattern of elections held in India incorporating important data, facts, factoids and anecdotes weaving interesting stories associated with the electoral process.
It’s worthwhile to share some of the contents of the book that cover from the days of pre-independent period to EVMs glancing into adult suffrage, independent election commission, model code etc.

For the first time the Government of India Act, 1919 provided for direct election to 100 out of 140 seats in the Central Legislative Assembly in British India. Five elections were held under this Act from 1920 to 1934. Keeping in view large numbers of illiterate voters, election symbols were introduced then itself.

Independence to India heralded universal adult suffrage and the first General Elections were held to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies simultaneously during 1951-52. Every citizen above 21 years (now it is 18 years) of age was eligible to vote. It was an enormous task to enroll every adult citizen. Size of the electorate was 173.20 million voters. The process of election began on September 10, 1951 with issuing notification and concluded on June 4, 1952.

As many as 489 out of 499 seats were filled by election to the first Lok Sabha in which 72 seats were reserved for SCs and 26 for STs. A total of 1874 were in the fray. A total of 15,361 candidates contested for 3, 283 seats for Legislative Assemblies in all the states. However the electorate size in the 16th General Elections held in 2014 was a little above 834 million for whom 9, 27, 553 polling stations were set up across 543 constituencies with 8251 contestants.

Two bulls with Yoke, Tree, Hand, Hut, Ears of corn with sickle etc., were some of the election symbols then. 24,73,850 metal boxes and 1,11,095 wooden boxes were used to receive ballots because each candidate was assigned one box then. India has constitutionally guaranteed independent Election Commission. Though Article 324 permits the Election Commission of India to have a three-member team, in effect, CEC was the sole member from March 21, 1950 to October 15, 1989 and then again from January 2, 1990 to September 30, 1993.

Since October 1, 1993 the Commission became a three-member body. Only through a parliamentary impeachment can the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) be removed from office. Every state and union territory has a Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) as the representative of the Election Commission of India.

Beginning with Sukumar Sen as the first CEC, several luminaries occupied the seat. To mention names of them, we had, KVK Sundaram, SP Sen Verma, Nagendra Singh, T Swaminathan, SL Shakdhar, RK Trivedi, RVS Peri Sastri, VS Ramadevi, TN Seshan, MS Gill, JM Lyngdoh, TS Krishnamurthy, BB Tandon, N Gopalaswami, Navin B Chawla, SY Quraishi, VS Sampath, HS Brahma and the present Dr Nasim Zaidi.

The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are the new ballots. The use has trimmed the bulk and the cost of election material, lessened manpower requirement, eliminates invalid voting and accelerated the counting process. Election Commission introduced the “None of The Above” (NOTA) option on EVMs in accordance with the orders of Apex Court in 2013, giving a choice to electors who do not want to vote for any of the candidates.

Imposters personating as voters listed on electoral roll was a menace that was detected quite early. It was taken note of by the first CEC. This led to issuing Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC). In due course the EPIC became a valid ID card-cum-address proof. Gradually electoral rolls were also computerized.

While this is the scenario for the general elections, the elections to two highest constitutional offices of the country namely that of President and the Vice-President are conducted on the basis of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Both elections are held by secret ballot. They are still conducted by EC in the old fashion of casting paper ballot.

The Model Code of Conduct is a set of conventions applicable to political parties and candidates during the elections. Its purpose is to keep the campaigning, polling and counting orderly; prevent any breach of peace; and check abuse of state machinery and finances to the benefit of party in power. It is in force from the date of announcement of elections till the official declaration of results.

The code, however, does not enjoy any statutory or legal backing. Publication of exit poll results is prohibited by law until the conclusion of polling. The world had taken notice of elections in India and journalists, politicians and observers from numerous countries descended upon India to see its novel experiment of adult suffrage.

By Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao