Electoral Reforms For India

Electoral Reforms

We have lived our brand of democracy for the past 72 years, we can and should give it due credit for all our successes and failures, it has for all purposes served it purpose, it is now time to move on. Society has changed and more important we are richer for the experience, it is time we craft a new direction, one that is built on the lessons painfully learned. I believe democracy is still the best form of government available, but we need a bit of cleanup, fine-tuning and active participation to make it better. Here are a few changes which can make us a better democracy.

1) State parties should not stand for central elections and Central parties should not stand for state elections.

India has two houses of parliament, the upper house with members nominated by the state legislatures, and the lower house with members directly elected by the people. Having central and state parties everywhere blurs the distinction between center and state. The center should stay out of state politics, and vice versa.

The constitution bifurcates the state and central responsibilities, having the same or different party in center and state for different states messes up roles and responsibilities.

There will be fewer chances of fractured verdicts, fewer chances of the country being held hostage by a small group, few chances of partisan politics between center and state, the proverbial cart can go in one direction instead of being pulled by different parties.

2) Mission 100% Voting

Scrap Election Photo Id Card, use Aadhar card for voting, A person automatically becomes eligible to vote when they attain 18 years of age. Their constituency will be the current address on their Aadhar card. Changing Aadhar address is a seamless process and we can use that for people on the move.

A suitable incentive can be given to people to vote or punishment can be levied such as having their Aadhar card suspended (with that any Aadhar related services like PAN, banking, driving license) or say a 1% tax surcharge etc.

A facility to vote early or out of the constituency should be provided, people should be able to visit designated police stations, use their fingerprint, login, and vote for a week before the election date.

If the number of NOTA votes is higher than all the candidates there should be a re-election in that constituency and none of the candidates who stood will be eligible to stand again.

Democracy works when everyone votes, else it is a farce, Having everyone vote will automatically reduce money in elections and shift the focus to actual issues. We are a mobile society, people should be able to vote from where ever, there is the technology to do it and if we (The IT capital of the world) cannot do it, who else can.

3) Cleanup money in politics

• All political contributions should be made public, however small.
• All political parties should submit audited accounts every year or be stripped of their privileges.
• Political contributions by corporations should be banned. Corporations are not voters, hence any donation by the same does not make sense.
• Party expenditure should be capped just like candidate expenditure and limits should be reduced.
• The donation amount for any party/candidate from a single donor should be capped i.e. nobody can donate more than X amount (say Rs. 10,000), this will stop large donations that buy influence. Perhaps we can encourage small donations by giving a tax rebate for small donations or give election credit to each tax registered person.
• The amount a party can raise every year should also be capped i.e. A party can raise only Y amount depending on how many seats it's going to contest.
• The election time should be shortened.

What percentage of the voters has ever attended a political rally, also, the people who attend, do they come to the rally or are they bought/brought to the rally, with that in mind all political rallies during election time should be banned.

All candidates will be given free and equal TV and SMS time to put forward their case (all tv channels and mobile operators will participate), there will be at least one public debate among the candidates telecast live with questions. This form of state funding of elections will reduce the amount of money any candidate needs to fight an election. Let's use technology to reduce the amount required to fight an election and help remove money in politics.

We cannot stop candidates handing out money to voters, the only ways to counter it is by increasing voter count so as to make buying votes impractical, educating voters about the implications of selling their vote and last but not the least making it difficult for people to get hold of large sums of cash.

4) Candidates

A Candidate can only stand from a constituency where he/she has been a resident for at least 5 years.
A person who stands for election will have his and his family members income audited during his term and for 5 years after.
A person can only stand for election (either MLA or MP) for a maximum of 2 times.
One family can have only one candidate in the election and no constituency can be represented by the same family for 10 years after one family member.
A convicted person cannot stand for election nor can any person facing criminal charges.

5) Other ideas

• Move to a presidential form of government
• Involve people more, have referendums for important issues
• Ability to recall representatives
• Prevent representatives from changing their party or doing things different from their manifesto
• Administration courses for people seeking election
• Report card for representatives with metrics and pass-fail
• Portals for the public to interact with their representatives

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.  We are right there with our 72 year old democracy, its time to shake things up, a better system will beget a better government and from there a better country.