what is meant by election
- All citizens cannot directly participate in making any decision, therefore the process by which the public chooses its leader (representative) is called election.
- The person whom the public elects to the parliament or assembly through the election process
- That person is called the representative of the public.
- These leaders who are elected by the public to the parliament represent the public and make policies for the welfare of the public and make laws for the country.
Types of democracy
1. Direct democracy
- In direct democracy, people directly participate in day-to-day decisions and running the government.
- The local governments of ancient Greece, especially the village councils, are the closest examples of direct democracy.
2. Indirect democracy
- But when millions and crores of people have to take decisions, direct democracy cannot be put into practice.
- Therefore, people's rule generally means rule by the representatives of the people.
election Commission
Election Commission Of India
- There is election commission to conduct elections in India
- Election Commission is mentioned in Article 324 of the Indian Constitution
- There is a Chief Electoral Officer in every state to assist the Election Commission of India
- The Election Commission is not responsible for the elections of local bodies. For this, there are State Election Commissioners in the states who work separately from the Election Commission.
- The Election Commission of India works without any pressure. The Election Commission will have three member Election Commissioners - one Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners
- The first Election Commissioner was Sukumar Sen
- The current Election Commissioner is Rajeev Kumar
Functions of Election Commission
- Preparation of Electoral Roll
- Conducting elections
- conducting free and fair elections
- Issuance of code of conduct
- Issue of election symbols to political parties
- registration of political parties
- Setting a limit on the amount of money that candidates can spend during elections
flaws in the election system
- Spending more money in elections
- Votes are bought and sold during elections
- Often asking for votes in the name of caste and religion during elections
- The increasing involvement of criminals in politics has led to the criminalization of elections
- gaining power by making false promises
- Use of violence during elections which causes loss of life and property and spreads chaos
- Offering money, goods, or other inducements in exchange for votes
suggestions for election reform
- The system of proportional representation should be implemented in place of the system of winning with the most votes
- This will give political parties seats in the same proportion as the votes they get
- One third of the seats in Parliament and State Assemblies should be reserved for women
- If there is any criminal case against a candidate then he should be barred from contesting the election
- There should be laws to regulate the functioning of political parties
- Complete ban on polarization on the basis of caste and religion in election campaign
- There should be strict provisions to control the influence of religion in electoral politics
election system in india
- India is a democratic country
- Here elections are held in a fair and democratic manner
- A detailed description of the entire system of conducting elections is present in the Constitution of India.
- Election commission is an independent body for conducting elections in India.
There are two types of election systems in India
1. Whoever gets the most votes wins
(First past the post system)
- In this system, the candidate who gets more votes than all the other candidates is declared the winner.
- It is not necessary for the winning candidate to get a majority of the total votes.
- This method is called 'First past the post system'.
- This is also called pluralistic system.
- The Constitution accepts this method.
- In India, elections to the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha are held on this system.
2. Single Transferable Vote System or Proportional Representation System
- Proportional representation system
- In India, the system of proportional representation has been adopted in a limited form only for indirect elections.
- In India, the proportional representation system is used for the elections of the President, Vice-President, Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils
Difference between victory based on most votes and proportional representation system
Win based on most votes
- The entire country is divided into small geographical units which are called constituencies or districts?
- Only one representative is elected from each constituency.
- The voter votes for the candidate.
- A party may get more or fewer seats in the legislature than the proportion of votes it receives.
- The winning candidate does not necessarily get a majority (50%+1) of the votes
- Example - UK and India
👉 Proportional representation system
- A large geographical area is considered as a constituency. The whole country can be considered as one constituency.
- Multiple representatives may be elected from one constituency.
- The voter votes for the party.
- Each party gets seats in the legislature in proportion to the votes it receives.
- The winning candidate gets a majority of the votes.
- Example - Israel and Netherlands
Why was the system of winning with the most votes implemented in India?
- The process of single transferable vote system is quite complex, it can be implemented only in a small country
- But not in a huge country like India.
- The success of the most votes-win system is the reason for its popularity.
- For those voters who do not have special knowledge of politics and elections, the entire election system is easy to understand.
Reservation of constituencies
- In the system of most votes, the candidate who gets the most votes in a constituency is declared the winner. This harms small social groups.
- This is even more important in the Indian social environment. We have a history of caste-based discrimination.
- In such a social system, the system of most votes wins would result in the dominant social groups and castes winning everywhere and the oppressed social groups would not get representation.
- The makers of our Constitution were aware of this difficulty and understood the need to ensure fair and equitable representation to such Dalit oppressed social groups .
- Even before independence, there was debate on this issue and the British government had introduced 'Separate Electorate'.
- This meant that only people of a community would be able to vote in the election of the representative of that community.
- Many members of the Constituent Assembly were skeptical about this. They thought that this system would not fulfill our objectives. Therefore, the system of reserved constituencies was adopted.
- Under this system, all voters in a constituency will vote but the candidate will belong only to the community or social class for which the seat is reserved.
Universal adult suffrage and right to contest elections
- All citizens of India have universal adult suffrage, meaning all citizens of India can vote.
- Irrespective of religion, caste, community, colour, appearance or dress
- Anyone who has attained 18 years of age can vote
- Until 1989, citizens up to the age of 21 had the right to vote
- But in 1989, this age was reduced to 18 years by amending the constitution
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