Electoral Politics -

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Political Science

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Electoral Politics
Electoral Politics in India
Electoral politics is related to politics that occurs in the context of elections. Elections are an
important aspect of democracy. Elections are the process by which people choose their
representatives to act on their behalf in a legislative body. Electoral politics involves not only
the occurrence of elections but also patterns of mobilisation by political parties and leaders
for voting in the elections. The conduct of elections in a free and fair manner and the extent of
participation of people from various social groups is considered a way to measure the success
of democracy. The subject to study elections is known as Psephology.
Participation
Electoral Participation rates depend on many factors including the type of electoral system,
the social groupings to which voters belong, and the voter’s personality and beliefs. The level
and type of election have a great impact on the rate of electoral participation. Electoral turnout
is greater in national than in state or provincial elections, and greater in the latter than in local
elections. Supporters of political parties vote more often than those without a partisan
identification. The perceived closeness of an electoral contest and the degree of ideological
polarization between parties or candidates can affect the competitiveness of the election and
consequently its turnout.
Recently, the Election Commission has signed MoUs with over 1,000 corporate houses
undertaking to monitor the “electoral participation of their workforce” and publish on their
websites and notice boards those who do not vote. the Indian Penal Code, vide Section 171A
(b). The law completely enables but does not force, citizens to vote.
Apart from Article 326 of the Constitution ( that guarantees the right to vote to every citizen
above the age of 18 years unless disqualified by any law), Section 62 of the RPA,1951 also
ensures that every person who is in the electoral roll of that constituency is entitled to vote.
If a person is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or
transportation, then he is not eligible for voting, however, in the case of preventive custody, he
can vote.

In the People’s Union of Civil Liberties versus Union of India 2013 case: Voters enjoy the
“Right to Negative Vote” in the election process and directed the ECI to include the choice
of “NOTA” in the ballot paper.

Measure to enhance voter participation:

SVEEP( Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation Program) flagship

program of the Election Commission of India for voter education, spreading voter
awareness and promoting voter literacy in India.

Types of Electoral Systems in India:

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First Past The Post (FPTP) System

This is used in the majority of the elections held across India such as electing
members of the State Assembly, Lok Sabha and Panchayats.
One voter can cast only one vote for any contesting candidate or choose None Of The
Above(NOTA).

Here, whichever candidate secures the highest number of votes wins.

Proportional Representation with Means of Single Transferable Vote:

This system is used in electing the President, Vice President, Members of the Rajya
Sabha, and Members of the State Legislative Council.
Here it can be a single as well as multi-member constituency and the winner is
deciding on a formula. Only if the candidate secures a minimum number of votes he is
declared a winner.

The formula to determine the number of votes required to win in this type of election is :

Contestation
Political contestation is one of the major components of a democratic setup. It involves
challenging the position of incumbent and outgoing leaders of government at the national,
congressional, and local levels. When people participate in elections to choose their
candidates, a significant part of their political rights is actualized. More so, their participation
signifies their stake in the future of the country and their communities.
Elections in India (the world’s second-most populous country) seek overwhelming popular
participation, where electoral candidates try to woo the voters by promising long-term
reforms, such as better governance, greater socioeconomic equity, poverty alleviation, etc.
However, corrupt politicians with criminal records, caste- and religion-based politics, and
allegations of vote-buying, have defeated the very purpose of such a democratic process.

In the Union of India versus Association of Democratic Reforms 2002 case: Contesting
candidates need to disclose all their assets and liabilities, criminal convictions, etc. at the
time of filing their nomination paper.

The Parliament has laid down the following qualifications (for contesting election) in the
RPA,1951:

A person must be an elector in the constituency.

The person must be a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe in any state/UTs
if he/she wants to contest a seat reserved for them.

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The minimum age for becoming an MLA/MP (Lok Sabha) is 25 years.

At the panchayat and municipality levels, the minimum age limit for contesting elections
is 21 years.

Representation
After independence, there was a need to hold general elections to elect a truly representative
government on the basis of universal adult suffrage. Article 325 of the Constitution ensures
universal suffrage. The holding of free and fair elections is the sine-qua-non of democracy. To
ensure the conduct of elections in a free, fair and impartial manner, the constitution-makers
incorporated Part XV (Articles.324-329) in the constitution and empowered Parliament to make
laws to regulate the electoral process. In this context, the Parliament enacted the
Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1950 and the Representation of the People Act,1951.
Some of the features of this Representation of the People Act:

As far as possible, every state gets representation in the Lok Sabha in proportion to its
population as per census figures. The RPA,1950 provides for delimitation which brings
equality in the process of election by ensuring roughly an equal number of electors in
each constituency.
Each state is to have a CEO nominated or designated by the ECI in consultation with the
state government to supervise the election work in the State/ UTs.
The ERO is responsible for the preparation of the electoral roll for each constituency
(parliamentary/assembly).
Returning Officer(RO) is responsible for the conduct of the election in a constituency and
returns an elected candidate.

Emerging Trends

Social media has become the favoured tool of politicians to get their messages out — it’s
much easier to issue a tweet or a Facebook post than to call a press conference
till 2010 the number of women voters was less than men, while in the 2019 general
elections, men and women voted in nearly equal numbers. ( book, Women Voters in
Indian Elections – Changing Trends and Emerging Patterns, has been edited by Prof
Sanjay Kumar)
Participation of weaker sections especially SC and ST has increased manifold thereby
consolidating the democratic process. The pattern of representation in Lok Sabha and
Rajya Sabha reflects that every segment of the population is getting represented.
Defection, presidential rule, election-related violence, etc have become a rarity.
The Right to Information, the Right to Education, and Panchayati Raj Act have really
empowered and enlightened the common people.
As per the data compiled by the IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union), of which India is a
member, women represent 14.44% of the total members of the Lok Sabha. Recently, the
representation of women in parliament in New Zealand crossed the 50% mark. ** In
1893, New Zealand became the first nation to allow women to vote

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Having understood the unfairness of the first-past-the-post system, voters are

increasingly ignoring Independents. The vote for Independents has dropped from 13% in
the earlier years to just 4% in the 2019 General Elections.
There is an increase in participation and vote count of regional parties.
Recently Aam Admi Party will be declared a National Party.

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