1. Manthan topic: Informed Voter
Eradicating the dominion of money and muscle power
from the elections
Electoral Reforms
Team Details:
Faizan Mohd.
Suraj Sahoo
Vishnu Vinjam
Barkha Bansal
Parul Maheshwari
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

2. Statistics of the current government and the elections conducted in 2009
• 33% of candidates who declared assets more than ₹ 5 crores, won in 2009
• 16% of the contesting candidates had assets more than ₹ 1 crore
• 2009 Lok Sabha Poll estimated spending nearly ₹ 10,000 crore, higher than the
2008 US Presidential Elections (nearly ₹ 8,000 crore)
• 162 MPs have a total of 552 pending criminal cases, of which, 76 were serious
• 15% of candidates standing for 2009 lok Sabha elections had pending criminal cases against
them
• 1,448 of total 4,835 MPs and MLAs are facing criminal charges
• 62% of the candidates were without a PAN
• percentage growth in assets of 304 MPs who re-contested in the 2009 was 289%
• Candidates with more assets were observed to be gaining majority in most of the
elections
33%
30%
62%

3. Issues with the Existing Electoral System
• Candidates distribute
goodies among citizens to
attract votes
• Intensive use of money in
these campaign
malpractices
• Ones with higher assets are
observed to be winning
elections in the past
• Voters get easily influenced
by the freebies or
intimidation.
• Citizens generally unaware
of a candidate’s motives
and past achievements
• Inefficiency in
implementation of the
existing rules leading to
these malpractices
• A vote is a strong currency
in the elections, especially
for a contesting candidate
• Strengthening the voter
increases the value of the
vote and the voter
• Convincing the informed
and aware voter will require
efficient effort from the
candidate’s side
Use of Money & Muscle Power Cause of These Issues Motive for Choosing the Voter

4. Bringing awareness among the citizens is the most efficient way to address this
problem.
Informed Voter
Accountable
Candidature
Advantages of
the Reform
• Informing citizens more about the candidates standing from their constituency
• Modes of information dissemination are chosen so as to reach maximum number
of citizens: television, radio & local newspaper in the vernacular language
• Citizens are incentivized to complain about campaigning malpractices and hence
reduce the corruption involved in the election process
• Candidates have to make a constituency manifesto that is separate from the party
manifesto hence making him more accountable
• The manifesto has to be justified on a public platform including a conversation
with the opposing candidates through the election debates
• Candidates have to make an affidavit containing information about their
assets/liabilities and criminal cases which is made easily available for public
scrutiny
• Citizens will be given an opportunity to logically decide a better candidate for
them
• The number of votes gained by a candidate will reflect more of his individual
caliber and vision about his constituency than that of his party at the
state/national level
• Elections will be made relatively fair, especially for the candidates who have
comparatively less resources

5. Added responsibilities
of the candidates
Conducting the election
debate
Giving information to
the voters
Basic Idea Timeline and publicizing Motive
• The candidates to submit a
manifesto in vernacular
language
• Manifesto should be meant to
address the problems
pertaining to the constituency
• It should be different from the
party manifesto
• Candidate’s affidavit i.e. the
nomination form is to be
made easily available to the
public
• The affidavit will contain
details of assets/liabilities and
past criminal cases, if any
• Manifesto has to be
submitted at the time of filing
nomination
• All manifestos for a
constituency printed in the
local newspaper on the
election debate day
• Copies of manifesto and
affidavit will be available at
government offices for public
reference
• Any eligible voter can get the
copies against some payment.
• To make the procedure more
transparent and clear
• On a constituency level,
voters get to know the
promises a candidate is
making
• Voters will be aware of the
financial and criminal status
of a particular candidate
• Beneficial for candidates who
are not able to reach to the
voters due to lack of
resources and time

6. Idea and motive Structure Organization
• Election debate on
constituency level
• Organized & Moderated by
Returning Officer of the
constituency
• A platform for the candidates
get to question their
opponents’ manifestos
• Voters get a comparative
picture of candidates
• Candidate’s vision, planning
and caliber is reflected
• Shifting the focus from party
to the candidate from a
constituency
• All the candidates of the
constituency convene
• A candidate reads out his
manifesto
• Opposing candidates can raise
questions regarding the
manifesto
• Concerned candidate has to
respond within a maximum of
5 minutes
• A total of 30 minutes is
allotted to each candidate (10
minutes for reading manifesto
and 20 minutes for QnA)
• To be organized on a
particular day which is
different for each
constituency in a given area
• Debate day for each
constituency is finalized by
the district election officer
• To be organized in a public
school or community hall
• It is officially video-graphed
for public reference
• On the debate day, the
manifestos and affidavits are
published in the local
newspaper
Added responsibilities
of the candidates
Conducting the election
debate
Giving information to
the voters

7. Added responsibilities
of the candidates
Conducting the election
debate
Giving information to
the voters
Motivating the voter Election Debate Awareness Campaign
• Any eligible voter can get
candidate or party manifesto
against a minimal payment
from any government office
• Citizens will be given a
commensurate monetary
reward for apprising the local
election authority about a
campaign malpractice
• The identity of the voter filing
complain, will be kept
anonymous
• The venue & timing of the
debate will be notified well
before
• The audio will be aired live on
radio channel
• Debate will be aired live on
the television
• Videos will be archived on the
EC’s official YouTube Channel
• Live screening in remote areas
to cater a large crowd
• An awareness campaign by
government with which the
voters can easily connect to
• To be spread through
multimedia: ads on TV, radio
and newspapers
• Encourage the voters to vote
as per their personal choice
• Motivate the voter to
complaint against threatening
• Motivate the voter to
complain about malpractices

8. Election
Commissioners
Section Officers
Chief Electoral
Officer
District Election
Officer
Returning
Officer
Sector Officer
Micro
Observer
Presiding
Officer
Electoral Registration
Officers
Commission's
Observer
Polling officer
National level body
State level machinery
Will schedule election debate in all the constituencies in a
district and ensure peaceful completion of the procedure
Will organize and moderate election debate in his
constituency and ensure proper conduction
Will ensure election-debate and candidate’s manifesto
reach to the public
Will implement laws regarding the election and
coordinate with the judiciary to resolve criminal issues.
Ensure proper functioning of lower organs of the system.
Electoral Organizational Structure

9. Impact and Reach
Candidates
Election
process
and Results
• The voters will have an easy
access to their rights and
powers
• The voters can decide their
vote on a logical basis
comparing the past records
and future policies of all the
candidates
• The voters will now get the
medium and assured
anonymity to complaint
against any practice they feel
is unjust
• The candidates will have
to extensively check the
promises they want to
make for the constituency
• The candidates will be
answerable for any
complaint on any
campaign malpractice
• The candidates will be
answerable to the voters
for their unaccountable
money and criminal
records
• The New election process
will make the voter more
powerful than the current
situation
• The issue of party or caste
bias will be solved
• The elected candidate will
be accountable to cover all
the points proposed by
him in the manifesto
• The process will
demotivate the freebies
promised randomly by a
candidate
Informed
Voter
Accountable
Candidate
Transparent
Process

10. This model will lead to an added expenditure of ₹ 107 Crores
Election Debate:
₹ 12 Lacs per Constituency
Info Dissemination:
₹ 1 Lac per Constituency
Constituency level
expenditure:
₹ 13 lacs
Awareness Campaign:
₹ 36 Crores for the Nation
Total Cost for National
Election:
₹ (13X 543) lacs + ₹ 36 Crores
= 107 Crores
Similar Estimate for
Vidhan Sabha Elections
Organization Cost: ₹ 50,000
Media Cost: ₹ 10 Lacs
Public Screening: ₹ 1 Lac
Providing copies of candidate
manifestos and affidavits in Govt.
offices ₹ 1 Lac
Media Cost: ₹ 25 Crores
Logistics: ₹ 1 Crores
Development Cost: ₹ 10 Crores
Assuming that the size of a state level
constituency is one-third of a National
level Constituency
Constituency level
expenditure:
₹ 4.3 lacs
The Expenditure incurred by a
state depends upon the number
of constituencies it has: For
example, the budget for Sikkim
(32 constituencies) will be ₹ 1.5
Crores while that for Uttar
Pradesh (403) constituencies
will be ₹ 17 Crores

11. Conducting the
Election Debate
Giving Information
to the Voters
Added Responsibilities
of the Candidates
• Candidate can
circumvent the checking
instruments
• Candidate can produce
counterfeit documents
• Debate may turn
in to quarrel and
may not lead to
any conclusion
• Manifestos published in
newspaper will not be
fruitful for illiterate voters
• Election video &
manifestos can be
tampered
• Electoral authorities
need to be more
responsible
• They should have access
to all data of other
departments like
revenue and police dept.
• RO has to appoint an
election debate
moderator who can
tackle such situation
• Extra security force
should provided to avoid
untoward situation
• Sector officers must have
the onus to check the
malpractices and a
method for quick
redressal must be devised
Challenges and their Mitigations
Challenges
Mitigation

12. • Association of Democratic Reforms: http://adrindia.org/
• Website of the election commission of India: http://eci.nic.in
• Hindustan Times, 5th September, 2013:
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
• Compendium of instructions:
http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/ElectoralLaws/compendium/vol2.pdf
• Handbook for Returning Officers:
http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/ElectoralLaws/HandBooks/Handbook_for_Returning_Officers.
pdf
• Maps of India: http://www.mapsofindia.com/assemblypolls/
• Wikipedia
Appendix