BY H H Mohrmen
Now that the election process is over, the need of the hour is to study and look at how we can improve the way we conduct elections particularly elections to the state Assembly. We must first of all congratulate the office of the State Election Officer for a successful and peaceful election. There are, however, few gaps that can be addressed to improve the way elections are conducted in the future.
Since the DC’s office is the place which is like a central office with regards to conducting elections in every district, election also has a major impact on the functioning of various departments in this office. For at least three months, almost all the time of the officers and staff of the DC’s office is usurped for preparation of the elections only. All other functions of these departments (except for few emergency cases) slow down and some even come to a grinding halt.
The issuance of Scheduled Tribe or Permanent Residential certificates were delayed during the run up to the last election because most of the officers who are supposed to sign the documents were preoccupied with election duties. Supervising the preparation of the elections has taken much of their time and energy and they have very less time to attend to other duties.
Functions of other departments were also affected because all the officers and most of the staff were selected to officiate for election duties and everybody knows that they cannot play truant on this. And because in the entire three months that the government is engaged in the election preparation, officials of all ranks also have very little or no time to attend to their respective duties. The point is that in the three months before the election even the different government departments stop functioning normally or function on a very low pace.
In the last election even the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) scheme suffered as Block Development Officers (BDOs) and gram-sevaks and gram-sevikas had to attend to their respective trainings to prepare them for election duties. It will not be surprising if many of the Village Employment Councils (VECs) which used to achieve hundred days target failed to do so this financial year because of the election process which took many months to prepare.
The blame is also on the VEC and the voters themselves for not being able to achieve 100 days target because come election, then the festive mood starts to pervade the atmosphere and everything comes to a standstill for the people during the election. The members and the officials of the VECs are all too busy canvassing for their respective candidates so this also hampers the smooth functioning of the VECs. So the last three months of the financial year which could be critical for the community to complete the hundred days target went for a toss because of the election fervour.
The question is also about the need to provide training for officials to man the election. Why do we still need to repeatedly train the officials who are to man the polling stations when most of them have conducted elections many times in the past. Most of the senior staff stated that the training is needed only for those who have not been deputed for election duties. Hence it was a waste of time and money to even call them for training because the training is only a repetition of what was provided to them in the last election.
The new reforms introduced by the government in conducting the elections did have some impact. For example the flying quads were able to confiscate huge cache of money during the election. But does that mean that this time the candidates spent within the limited amount stipulated by the Election Commission? Was there no buying of votes or financing of other activities by the candidates during the election?
During the election candidates compete among themselves in providing financial support to religious organisations which organise their conferences or festivals or what have you. And the assistance varies from sponsoring for the cost of making pandals, hiring of chairs or sound system and others. Some candidates even construct approach roads to the place where the conference or the festival is held. Questions may also be asked whether the candidates are honest with the returns they submit to the Election Officer or the Observers on their expenditure during the election. But the most important question is whether the candidate provided true information on their declaration with regards to their educational qualifications, wealth and other information during the time of filling of nomination papers? Are they really honest with the oath that they had taken? These are some very important questions that the public really need to know to improve the election process in the state.
During the election we should also have another addition to the Sermon on the Mount which would say: ‘Blessed are those who die during elections because their family would not have to spend anything for their funeral.’ The reason is because during election every candidate cannot afford to not pay a courtesy visit to the bereaved family and contributing some money to that family. Some candidate pay for pandals, buying of rice, coffin and supply of water or for hiring of chairs and the candidates already have their own vendors who provide the above services almost 24×7.
Some candidates choose to donate some money to the bereaved family and also have the audacity to take advantage of what should have been a visit to show their sympathy to the family but instead canvass for their candidacy. Of course it is known that candidates will do anything for votes during election but one would not expect them to stoop so low as to canvass even while the dead body still lies in state at the residence of the family. During such visit candidates shake hands with almost everybody present at the bereaved family’s home as if he or she really cares, but the moment the election is over, they turn to their usual self.
Organising weddings or birthday bashes for one’s children during election is also another trend which is getting popular. Again maybe we should add another part to the Sermon on the Mount which will say: ‘Blessed are those who tie their nuptial knots during election for they shall be abundantly blessed with expensive gifts of all shapes, sizes and colours.’
The other election issue that needs to be looked into in the next election is the campaign style in which several lakhs and crores of rupees were spent. The cost of hiring of vehicles to be used during the entire campaigning period and the expenditure incurred for arranging food and other logistics is phenomenal, yet this went unnoticed. Political party rallies are also one occasion when the Parties spend crores of money only for organising one rally. And parties organise many such rallies across the state. The question is whether the government can control such activities?
It is high time that the EC bans the use of vehicles to convey people from one campaign ground to another during candidate’s campaign trails. Instead it is better to organise debates if provision in the election rules allows and also to encourage different civic bodies to organise debates to minimise expenditure of the candidate.
The last point is using teachers in the election process. We all know that unlike departments; schools function only few months in a year. Normally elections are conducted just after the schools’ winter break and then teachers have to immediately attend trainings and then attend to the election duty. This has greatly affected the students and the normal functioning of the schools. And just after the election there is the are SSLC and HSSLC examinations where schools which are examination centres again have to give more than ten days holiday to the students. Engaging teachers in the election process is like robbing the students of their precious time which they would have benefitted if their teachers were attending normal schools hours.
Of course conducting elections is a democratic process which is necessary but we also need to learn to improve on how we conduct our elections. This will not only benefit the people but strengthen democracy too.