Crisis of Governance. Other Electoral Reforms.

Proliferation of non-serious candidates, mushrooming of small political parties and excessive election expenditure have all become the bane of our electoral system. Also the identification of every elected functionary with specific territorial constituency has led to unhealthy scramble for resource allocation and patronage distribution, with few legislators having the will, courage or strength to pay attention to the larger issues of governance.

To overcome these unhealthy trends, the following reforms are needed:

I) Political parties must be recognized only if they fulfill the conditions listed above and have obtained at least 10 percent of the votes polled in the area of their operation - regional / national - in the preceding election. Until such time they obtain 10 percent of votes they will be unrecognized political parties, though registered. Even registered unrecognized
political parties must conform to the regulations as prescribed in order to continue the registration.

ii) Unregistered political parties and non-party candidates can be on the ballot only on obtaining written support of a prescribed minimum number of voters, say one percent, in the constituency / territory.

iii) There must be a reasonable security deposit for contestants which would be refunded only if 10 per cent of the valid votes are obtained by the candidate. This amount should be of the order of Rs.25,000 for an assembly constituency and Rs.1 lakh for a parliamentary constituency.

iv) 50 per cent of all seats in the representative bodies should be filled by proportional representation. Only those registered parties which obtained at least 10 per cent of the valid votes shall be eligible for proportional representation.

v) The remaining 50 per cent of the seats will be filled by the first-past-the-post system constituency-wise.

vi) The list of party nominees for election directly constituency-wise or through proportional system shall be chosen democratically by party members as outlined above.

vii) All parties must have access to electronic media operating within the territory, whether state-owned or private. There must be an appropriate law to make it mandatory for the media to provide equal, free, unpaid access to all recognized parties. The Election Commission shall have the authority to determine the modalities of such access from time to time. Registered political parties will obtain access only after being recognized.

viii) The state shall provide a common platform for public meetings to all recognized political parties under the supervision of the Election Commission in each constituency. The modalities shall be determined by the Election Commission and the expenditure so incurred shall be borne by the state.

ix) Public rallies shall be strictly regulated and preferably discouraged during election campaigns. There can be public gatherings in closed doors under covered roofs.

x) There can be paid advertising by the candidates in electronic media and print media if they so choose, which shall be taken into account while calculating the election expenditure.

xi) Every item of expenditure shall be by cheque and any violation by the candidates or agents or suppliers of material etc. shall entail a minimum imprisonment of two years if proved. The burden of proof shall rest with the accused.

xii) Every voter, to be eligible for voting, shall have a photo-identity card issued by the election authority.

xiii) Voting shall be by electronic voting machines as far as possible, to facilitate fair polling and easy counting.

xiv) Campaign period shall be reduced to two weeks.

xv) Candidates shall be barred from contesting in more than one constituency.