Sunday Read

New Delhi, 13 February 2009

General Elections 2009

MONUMENTAL EXERCISE FOR DEMOCRACY

By T.D. Jagadesan

  Without cricket and elections, India would be a dull country. Their grip on the collective consciousness of the society is something that has to be seen to be believed.  Mercifully for the billion-strong Indians, cricket matches and elections keep happening periodically, oxygenating and energizing the society from time to time. While the most absorbing cricket match may last a day, elections can hold the attention of the society for almost two months. The country is gearing up for one more such election. 

If one were to name any one characteristic of elections in India, it would be ‘intensity’ with a capital ‘I’. Hype, hope, passion, anger, anxiety, noise and happiness – all are inseparable emotions of any election in India. The complexity of managing such a wide range of human emotions and action often poses tremendous challenges to the election managers. Experience of conducting elections is indeed transformational for an official, who has worked in the election process in India.

In our electoral system, “the first one to pass the post” is declared the winner, leaving behind a lot of time (normal tenure of a legislative body being five years) for the scores of losers to ponder over reasons for their defeat. In a little less than two months from the date of issuance of notification of elections by the Election Commission, the process of electing people’s representatives for Parliament or State assemblies is completed.

Democracy is a continual participative operation and not a sudden exercise. The little man in the multitude, casting his vote at the polls, does a social audit of not just the Parliament but of various democratic institutions that acquire their legitimacy through his vote. Village level panchayats, municipal corporations and State Assemblies too depend upon his vote for their legitimacy. It will not be euphemistic to suggest that democracy as a concept has taken such deep roots in India that debates whenever they take place, are only about creating or strengthening democratic institutions, never about replacing them.

Even if a theoretical alternative to democracy may exist, it is beyond an average citizen even to consider such a possibility. It has been that way for him for far too long. There is no legal compulsion to cast the vote, as is the case in some other democracies, therefore it remains a right to vote and not a duty.

Since Independence, there have been as many as 14 General elections and over 350 State contests. There are 543 constituencies for Lok Sabha and 4061 Legislative Assemblies at the State level. In the 2004 General elections there were 671.1 million registered electors, of which 295.7 million were women. The maximum number of voters was registered in the outer Delhi constituency (321.9 million) and the smallest was 37,000 in Lakshadweep.

Such a staggering number of electors could overwhelm the best of election managers. Though the total number of voters in India far exceeds the populations of several nations put together, the process of conducting an election is always carried out as per the law and procedure, and is largely peaceful. This is achieved through painstaking processes that have evolved and stabilized over decades of electoral experience, rigorous documentation of the procedures, systematic training of personnel and scrupulous monitoring by the EC.

It is amazing as to how in a country as large as ours, covering four per cent of the land mass and 16 per cent of the world’s population and relief features like mountains, deserts, remote islands and thick forests, elections are simultaneously held. The schedule is decided by keeping in mind variables like the harvesting seasons, the festivals, examination schedules of schools and colleges, weather conditions and prevailing peace situation; such a fine-tuning being essential to ensure maximum turnout of voters. 

To enable the voters to cast their vote without having to travel or walk long distances, care is taken to provide polling stations as close as possible. It is ascertained that a manageable number of electors is assigned to each polling station, to keep the waiting time short. In 2004 the total number of polling stations was 6,87,4,02 and establishing a polling station calls for mustering resources, both human and material, and ensuring that all logistical support is firmly in place. There is an average of five personnel deputed for each polling station on day of polling.

The average number of voters in each polling station is between 1000 and 1200. But this number does not rule out provision of polling stations for lesser number in sparsely populated areas. In one case, a polling station had been provided for just one family of three electors at Chako in Arunachal’s Thirizino-Buragaon Assembly constituency. Two polling stations were for electors of Anlayphoo, Ladakh at an altitude of 5,000 m. Though the polling stations are normally common for men and women, there are exclusive stations for women keeping in mind social practices and local customs.

Some times mobile polling stations are established on basket boats to help voters in the outlying islands to cast their votes. Iin Rajasthan some polling parties and material are carried on camels. In interiors of Assam, where forests are inaccessible, elephants are used to carry people and equipment. In tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, helicopters are used.

The choice before the Indian voters is also not easy. In the 1999 elections, there were seven national parties, 40 State level parties, 122 registered (unrecognized) parties, besides a host of independent candidates (with no party backing) to choose from. In all 4,648 candidates were in the fray in 543 Parliamentary constituencies with a maximum of 32 in one constituency in Uttar Pradesh. The scenario has changed since reforms. In the 1996, there were 480 candidates for a single constituency of Nalgonda in Andhra. Ballot papers have been as newspapers, sometimes printed like booklets. In the same election, 8000 metric tonnes of paper was used for ballot papers alone.

Another notable feature of the election is the allotment of symbols. Though literacy standards have vastly improved, the symbol system has become a permanent feature. The need for having a symbol to denote the candidates initially arose because the illiterate voters had to be facilitated to cast their votes in secrecy with the help of the symbol. As time passed, parties have come to be identified with their symbols.

The polling day is the D-day. To enable electors to exercise their franchise free from worries about employment, occupation, or business, the polling day in the parliamentary or assembly constituency is observed as a holiday. Law provides that every person employed in any business, trade or industry entitled to vote should get a paid holiday.

Polling is followed by an open and transparent counting system, where each candidate is allowed to have his agent at each counting table in his constituency. Ballot boxes, (and now, electronic voting machines), are unsealed and opened after the agents present are satisfied that the paper-seals on boxes are intact and have not been tampered with. Each ballot paper is opened and shown to all the agents and then tallied and counted. Results are announced after all the votes are counted, disputed ballots dealt with, and complaints and claims have been satisfactorily disposed of and clearance of EC obtained. 

In this entire mammoth exercise, about five million staff and officers of government are deployed, and remain under the administrative control of the EC during the period of their deployment. An official estimate of government expenditures on the 2004 poll was a whopping Rs.1300 crores.

At the end of the election process, one thing that emerges as the real winner every time an election is held is the concept of democracy itself, which has taken deep roots in the country. ---INFA

 
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)