ELECTORAL POLITICS

MADE BYNIHARIKA S PANDE

Class 9th-A

CONTENTS• Elections• Why elections• What makes election democratic?• Is it good to have political competition?• What is our system of election?• What makes election democratic in

India?• conclusion

ELECTIONS• Election, procedure that allows members of an

organization or community to choose representatives who will hold positions of authority within it.

• The most important elections select the leaders of local, state, and national governments.

• The chance to decide who will govern at these levels serves as an opportunity for the public to make choices about the policies, programs, and future directions of government action.

• At the same time, elections promote accountability.

• The threat of defeat at the polls exerts pressure on those in power to conduct themselves in a responsible manner and take account of popular interests and wishes when they make their decisions.

WHY ELECTIONS?•Elections take place regularly in any democracy. We know that

there are more than 100 countries in the world in which elections take

place to chose people’s representatives.

•But why do we need elections?• A rule of people is possible without any elections if all the people can sit together

everyday and take all the decisions. •But we already know that it is not possible in an

large community. •Nor it is possible for everyone to have the time and knowledge to take decisions on all matters. •Therefore in most democracies people rule

through their representatives.

CONTD…• In an election the voters

make many choices:• They can choose who will

make laws for them.• They can choose who will

form the government and take major decisions.

• They can choose the party whose policies will guide the government and law making.

WHAT MAKES ELECTION

DEMOCRATIC? Conditions of a democratic elections:

First, everyone should be able to choose. This means that everyone should have one vote and every vote and every vote should have equal value.

Second, there should be something to choose from. Parties and candidates should be free to

contest elections and should offer some real choice to the voters.

Third, the choice should be offered at regular intervals. Election must be

held regularly after every few years.Fourth, the candidate preferred by

the people should get elected.Fifth, elections should be conducted

in a free and fair manner where people can choose as they really

wish.

IS IT GOOD TO HAVE POLITICAL COMPETITION?

Elections are thus all about political competition. This takes competition takes

various forms. The most obvious form is the competition among political parties. At the

constituency level, it takes the form of competition among several candidates. If

there is no competition, elections will become pointless.

But is it good to have political competition?

Clearly, an electoral competition has many demerits. It creates a sense of disunity and ‘factionalism’ in

every locality. Different political parties and leaders often level allegations against one another. Parties

and candidates often use dirty tricks to win elections. Some people say that this pressure to win electoral fights dose not allow sensible long-term policies to be formulated. Some good people who may wish to serve the country do not enter this arena. They do

not like the idea being dragged into healthy competition.

WHAT IS OUR SYSTEM OF ELECTIONS?

Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha (Assembly) elections are held after every five years. After five years the

term of all elected representatives comes to an end. The Lok sabha or vidhan sabha stands

‘dissolved’. Elections are held in all constituencies at the same time either on the same day or within

a few days. This is called a general election.Sometimes elections is held only for one

constituency to fill the vacancy caused by death or resignation of a member. This is called a by-

election

ELECTORAL CONSTITUENCIES

In our country we follow an area based system of representation. The country

is divided into different areas for purposes of elections. These areas are

called electoral constituencies. The voters who live in an area elect one

representative.

For Lok Sabha elections, the country is divided into 543 constituencies. The

representative elected from each constituency is called a Member of

parliament or an MP. One of the features of democratic election

is that every vote should have equal value. That is why our constitution

requires that each constituency should have a roughly equal population living

within it.

CONTD…Similarly, each state is divided into specific

number of Assembly constituencies. In this case, the elected representative is called the member

of Legislative Assembly or an MLA. Each parliamentary constituency has within it several

assembly constituencies. The same principle applies for Panchayat and Municipal elections.

Each village or town is divided into several ewardsi that are like constincutencies. Each

ward elects one member of the village or the urban local body.

CONTD…Sometimes these constituencies are

counted as sates for each constituency represents one seat in

the assembly. When we say that elok dal won 60 seats in Haryana, it means that candidates of Lok Dal won in 60 assembly constituencies in the state and thus Lok Dal had 60 MLAs in the state assembly.

RESERVED CONSTITUENCIES

• The makers of our constitution thought of a special

system of reserved constituencies are reserved for the weaker sections. Some constituencies are reserved for people who belong to the Scheduled castes [SC] and

Scheduled Tribes [ST].• In a SC reserved constituency only someone who belongs to the Scheduled Castes can stand for election.

• Similarly only those belonging to the Scheduled Tribes can contest an election from a constituency reserved for ST. Currently, in the Lok Sabha 79 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 41 for the Scheduled Tribes.

VOTERS LIST

• In a democratic election the list of those who are eligible to vote is prepared much before

the election and given to everyone.• This list is officially called the Electoral Roll

and is commonly known as the Voters List. • This is an important step for it is linked to

the first condition of a democratic election: everyone should get an equal opportunity to

choose representatives.

CONTD…• Universal adult

franchise: In this practice it means that everyone should have one vote and each vote should have equal value.

LOK SABHA CONSTITUENCIESTotal constituencies = 543General = 423Reserved (SC) =79Reserved (ST)=41

STATES CONSTITUENCIESAndhra Pradesh 42 Arunachal Pradesh 2Assam 14 Bihar 40 Chhattisgarh 11 Goa 2Gujarat 26 Haryana 10Himachal Pradesh 4 Jammu and Kashmir 6 Jharkhand 14Karnataka 26 Kerala 20 Madhya Pradesh 29 Maharashtra 48Manipur 2Meghalaya 2Mizoram 1 UNION TERRITORIESNagaland 1 Orissa 21 Andaman & Nicobar 1Punjab 13 Chandigarh 1 Rajasthan 25 Dadra &Nagar Haveli Sikkim 1 Daman &Diu 1Tamil Nadu 39 Delhi 7Tripura 2 Lakshadweep 1Uttar Pradesh 80 Pondicherry 1Uttaranchal 5 West Bengal 42

ELECTION CAMPAING• The main purpose of election is to give

people a chance to choose the representatives, the government and the policies they prefer. Therefore it is necessary to have a free and open discussion about who is a better representative, which party will make a better government or what is a good policy. This is what happens during election campaigns.

• In our country such campaigns take place for a two week period between the announcement of the final list of candidates and the date of polling. During this period the candidates contact their voters, political leaders address election meetings and political parties mobilize their supporters.

• According to our election law, no party or candidates can:

• Bribe or threaten voters.• Appeal to them in the name of casts or religion.• Use government resources for election campaign

spend more than rupees 20 lakh in a constituency in an assembly election.

• Use any place of worship for election propaganda.• Use government vehicles, aircrafts and officials for

election• Once elections are announced, ministers shall not lay

foundation stones of any projects, take any big policy decisions or make any promises of providing public

facilities.

Why do you bother? You can go, I got

your vote cast!!

• POLLING AND COUNTING OF VOTES• The final stage of an election is the day when the voters

cast or ‘poll’ their vote. That day is usually called the election day.CANDIDATE PARTY VOTESPS POLLED %OF VOTES

Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi INC 312432 37.76

Basawaraj Patil Sedum BJP 254548 30.82

Vithal Heroor JD (S) 189001 22.84

Suryakant Nimbalkar BSP 26723 3.23

Sanganna IND 15212 1.84

Arun Kumar Chandrashekara Patil

KNDP 7155 0.86

Bhagavanreddy B IND 6748 0.52

Hamid Pasha Sarmast MUL 3900 0.47

Baswawant rao Revansiddappa Sheelwanth

AIFB 3671 0.44

Sandesh C Bandak USYP 3380 0.41

WHAT MAKES ELECTIONS IN INDIA DEMOCRATIC?

• We get to read a lot about unfair practices in elections like:

• Inclusion of false names and exclusion genuine names in the voters list;

• Misuse of government facilities and officials by the ruling party:

• Excessive use of money by rich candidates and big parties; and

• Intimidation of voters and rigging on the polling day.

INDEPENDENT ELECTION COMMISION

• Very few election commissions in the world have such wide-ranging powers as the election

commission of India.• EC takes decisions on every aspect of conduct

and control of elections from the announcement of elections to the declaration of results.

• It implements the code of conduct and punishes any candidate or party that violates it.

• During the election period, the EC can order the government to follow some

guidelines, to prevent use and enhance its chances its chances to win election,

or to transfer some government officials.• When on election, or to transfer some

government officers work under the control of the EC and not the

government.

1991 20050

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160 Column1INDIAUK

Upper cast

sOBC SC ST

White

Black

Hispan

ic0

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INDIA US

Column1

Do you think vote makes dif-ference?

Has effectHas no effectDon’t know

1996 1998 1999 20040

5

10

15

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25

30

35

Those who participate in any elec-tion related activity in India.

election yearSocial groups

THE OUTCOMES OF INDIA’S ELECTIONS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF: • The ruling parties routinely lose elections in India both at

the national and state level. In fact in every two out of the three elections held in the last fifteen years, the ruling

party lost.• In the US, an incumbent or ‘sitting’ elected representative

rarely loses an election. In India about half of the sitting MPs lose election.

• Barring very few disputed elections, the electoral outcomes are usually accepted as ‘people’s verdict’ by the

defeated party.

What was need to say that we have

distributed tickets only amongst suitable and

winnable family relations?

CHALLENGES TO FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS.

• All this lead to a simple conclusion: elections in India are basically free and fair. The party that wins an election and forms government dose so because

people have chosen it over its rivals.• can an ordinary citizen hope to win election?

Questions of this kind bring the many limitations and challenges of Indian elections to our attention. These

include: • Candidates and parties with lot of money may not be

sure of their victory but they do enjoy a big and unfair advantage over smaller parties and independents.

CONTD…• In some parts of the country, candidates with

criminal connection have been able to push others out of the electoral race and to secure a tickets from major parties.

• Some families tend to dominate political parties; tickets are distributed to relatives from these families.

• Very often elections offer little choice to ordinary citizens, for both the major parties are quite similar to each other both in policies and practice.

• Smaller parties and independent candidates suffer a huge disadvantage compared to bigger parties.

CONCLUSION..

These challenges exist not just in India but also in many established democracies. These deeper issues area matter of concern for those who believe in democracy. That is why citizens , social activists and organiza-

tions have been demanding reforms in our electoral system.

Thank-you