Election and Representation

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 Election System in India
• India is a constitutional democracy with a parliamentary
system of government, and at the heart of the system is a
commitment to hold regular, free and fair elections.
• These elections determine the composition of the government,
the membership of the two houses of parliament, the state and
union territory legislative assemblies, and the Presidency and
vice-presidency.
• Elections in India are events involving political mobilization
and organizational complexity on an amazing scale.
 First Past the Post
Under this system:
• The entire country is divided into 543 constituencies
• Each constituency elects one representative; and
• The candidate who secures the highest number of votes in
that constituency is declared elected.
• It is important to note that in this system whoever has more
votes than all other candidates is declared elected.
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• The winning candidate need not secure a majority of the
votes. This method is called the First Past the Post (FPTP) system
• This method is also called the Plurality System.
• The candidate who secures the highest number of votes in
that constituency is declared elected.
• It is important to note that in this system whoever has more
votes than all other candidates is declared elected.
• The winning candidate need not secure a majority of the
votes. This method is called the First Past the Post (FPTP)
system.
• This method is also called the Plurality System.
• This is the method of election prescribed by the Constitution.
 Proportional Representation
• Each party fills its quota of seats by picking those many of its
nominees from a preference list that has been declared before
the elections.
• In this system a party gets the same proportion of seats as its
proportion of votes.
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• In India, we have adopted PR system on a limited scale for
indirect elections. The Constitution prescribes a third and
complex variation of the PR system for the election of President,
Vice President, and for the election to the Rajya Sabha and
Vidhan Parishads.
 Comparison of FPTP and PR system of election
FPTP
• Country is divided into small geographical units called
constituencies or districts.
• Every Constituency elects one representatives.
• Voter votes for a candidate.
• A party may get more seats than votes in the legislature.
• Candidate who wins the election may not get majority.
• Example-UK and India
PR
• Large geographical areas are demarcated as constituencies.
• The entire country may be a single constituency.
• More than one representative may be elected from one
constituency.
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• Voter votes for the party.
Every party gets seats in the legislature in proportion to the
percentage of votes that it gets.
• Candidate who wins the elections gets majority of votes.
• Examples: Israel and Netherlands.
 Why did India adopt the FPTP system?
• The reason for the popularity and success of the FPTP system
is its simplicity.
• The entire election system is extremely simple to understand
even for common voters who may have no specialized
knowledge about politics and elections.
• A clear choice presented to the voters at the time of elections.
• Voters have to simply endorse a candidate or a party while
voting.
• Depending on the nature of actual politics, voters may either
give greater importance to the party or to the candidate or
balance the two.
• The FPTP system offers voters a choice not simply between
parties but specific candidates.
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• In constituency based system like the FPTP, the voters know
who their own representative is and can hold him or
her accountable.
 Why not PR System?
• PR based election may not be suitable for giving a stable
government in a parliamentary system.
• This system requires that the executive has majority in the
legislature.
• The PR system may not produce a clear majority because
seats in the legislature would be divided on the basis of share of
votes.
• In a diverse country like India, a PR system would encourage
each community to form its own nation-wide party.
 Why FPTP System?
• Generally FPTP gives the largest party or coalition some extra
bonus seats, more than their share of votes would allow.
• This system makes it possible for parliamentary government
to function smoothly and effectively by facilitating the
formation of a stable government.
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• The FTPT system encourages voters from different social
groups to come together to win an election in a locality.
• The FPTP system has proved to be simple and familiar to
ordinary voters
• It has helped larger parties to win clear majorities at the
centre and the State level.
• The system has also discouraged political parties that get all
their votes only from one caste or community.
 Reservation of Constituencies
• In this system, all voters in a constituency are eligible to vote
but the candidates must belong to only a particular community
or social section for which the seat is reserved.
• The Constitution provides for reservation of seats in the Lok
Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies for the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes.
• This provision was made initially for a period of 10 years and
as a result of successive constitutional amendments, has been
extended up to 2020.
• The Parliament can take a decision to further extend it, when
the period of reservation expires.
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 Who decides which constituency is to be reserved? On
what basis is this decision taken?
• Taken by an independent body called the Delimitation
Commission.
• The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President of
India and works in collaboration with the Election Commission
of India.
• Appointed for the purpose of drawing up the boundaries of
constituencies all over the country.
• A quota of constituencies to be reserved in each State is fixed
depending on the proportion of SC or ST in that State
• After drawing the boundaries, the Delimitation Commission
looks at the composition of population in each constituency.
• Those constituencies that have the highest proportion of
Scheduled Tribe population are reserved for ST.
• In the case of Scheduled Castes, the Delimitation Commission
looks at two things. It picks constituencies that have higher
proportion of Scheduled Caste population. But it also spreads
these constituencies in different regions of the State. This is
done because the Scheduled Caste population is generally
spread evenly throughout the country.
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 Universal franchise and right to contest
Who are the voters? Who can contest elections?
• In both these respects our Constitution follows the well-
established democratic practices.
• You already know that democratic elections require that all
adult citizens of the country must be eligible to vote in the
elections This is known as universal adult franchise.
• Till 1989, an adult Indian meant an Indian citizen above the
age of 21.
• An amendment to the Constitution in 1989, reduced the
eligibility age to 18.
• In both these respects our Constitution follows the well-
established democratic practices.
• You already know that democratic elections require that all
adult citizens of the country must be eligible to vote in the
elections This is known as universal adult franchise.
• Till 1989, an adult Indian meant an Indian citizen above the
age of 21.
• An amendment to the Constitution in 1989, reduced the
eligibility age to 18.
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• Adult franchise ensures that all citizens are able to participate
in the process of selecting their representative.
• This is consistent with the principle of equality and
non discrimination.
 Right to Contest Election
• All citizens have the right to stand for election and become the
representative of the people.
• There are different minimum age requirements for contesting
elections. For example, in order to stand for Lok Sabha or
Assembly election, a candidate must be at least 25 years old.
• There is a legal provision that a person who has undergone
imprisonment for two or more years for some offence is
disqualified from contesting elections.
• There are no restrictions of income, education or class or
gender on the right to contest elections.
 Independent Election Commission: Article 324: (1)
The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of
the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to
Parliament and to the Legislature of every State and of elections
to the offices of President and Vice-President held under this
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Constitution shall be vested in a Commission (referred to in this
constitution as the Election Commission).
• To assist the Election Commission of India there is a Chief
Electoral Officer in every state.
• The Election Commission is not responsible for the conduct of
local body elections. The Election Commission of India can either
be a single member or a multi- member body.
can either be a single member or a multi- member body.
Till 1989, the Election Commission was single member.
Just before the 1989 general elections, two Election
Commissioners were appointed, making the body multi-
member.
In 1993, two Election Commissioners were once again
appointed and the Commission became multi-member and has
remained multimember since then.
A multi-member Election Commission is more appropriate as
power is shared and there is greater accountability.
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) presides over the
Election Commission, but does not have more powers than the
other Election Commissioners,
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• The CEC and the two Election Commissioners have equal
powers to take all decisions relating to elections as a collective
body.
• They are appointed by the President of India on the advice of
the Council of Ministers.
• The Constitution ensures the security of the tenure of the CEC
and Election Commissioners.
•They are appointed for a six year term or continue till the age
of 65, whichever is earlier.
• The CEC can be removed before the expiry of the term, by the
President if both Houses of Parliament make such a
recommendation with a special majority.
• This is done to ensure that a ruling party cannot remove a
CECwho refuses to favour it in elections.
 Functions of Election Commission
• Supervises the preparation of up-to-date voters' list.
• Makes every effort to ensure that the voters' list is free of
errors like non- existence of names of registered voters or
existence of names of those non- eligible or non-existent.
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• Determines the timing of elections and prepares the election
schedule.
• The election schedule includes the notification of elections,
date from which nominations can be filed, last date for filing
nominations, last date of scrutiny, last date of withdrawal, date
of polling and date of counting and declaration of results.
• During this entire process, the Election Commission has the
power to take decisions to ensure a free and fair poll.
Commission has the power to take decisions to ensure a free
and fair poll.
• Can postpone or cancel the election in the entire country or a
specific State or constituency on the grounds that the
atmosphere is vitiated and therefore, a free and fair election
may not be possible.
• The Commission also implements a model code of conduct for
parties and candidates.
• It can order a re-poll in a specific constituency. It can also
order a recount of votes when it feels that the counting process
has not been fully fair and just.
• The Election Commission accords recognition to political
parties and allots symbols to each of them.
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Special Majority:
Special majority means:
• Two-thirds majority of those present and voting, and
• Simple majority of the total membership of the House.
 Suggestions for Electoral Reforms:
• Our system of elections should be changed from the FPTP to
some variant of the PR system. This would ensure that parties
get seats, as far as possible, in proportion to the votes they get.
• There should be a special provision to ensure that at least one
third women are elected to the parliament and assemblies.
• There should be stricter provisions to control the role of
money in electoral politics. The elections expenses should be
paid by the government out of a special fund. Candidates with
any criminal case should be barred from contesting elections,
even if their appeal is pending before a court.
• There should be complete ban on the use of caste and
religious appeals in the campaign.
• There should be a law to regulate the functioning of political
parties and to ensure that they function in a transparent and
democratic manner.