2. Problem statement
205
315
254
95
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Financial
Fraud
Voilent
Crimes
Theft
Related
Other
Serious
Crimes
No.ofCases
Criminal Suites against candidates
→ There is only 12% chances of
winning election with clean records
→ Chance of winning being an serious
criminal is 23% which is striking
?74% of candidates were accused of repeated criminal offence
→ Fallacy of parties that criminals have greater control over public
? Average assets of candidates is 1.37 Crores
→ Wealthy candidate treated as ready source of dispensable money
रु1.37
रु3.83
रु4.30
रु4.38
Proportionate Financial Representation
Assets of Candidates
Assets of MP's/MLA's
Assets of MP's/MLA's with
Criminal Charges
Assets of MP's/MLA's with
Serious Criminal Charges
# All figures in crores
Source
adrindia.org
3. proposed solutions
FORMATION OF
CENTRAL ELECTION
SECURITY FORCE
EXCESSIVE PUBLIC
AWARENESS VIA PRINT
AND DIGITAL MEDIA
PROPORTIONAL
REPRESENTATION
WITH
INCREASED
ACCOUNTABILITY
CREATION OF AN
NATIONAL ELECTION
CAMPAIGN EXPENSE
WATHDOG (NEAT)
PROLONGED
ELECTION PERIOD
WITH
INCREASED MODUS
OPERANDI OF
CASTING VOTES
4. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
NATIONAL ELECTION AUDIT TEAM
(NEAT)
OVERVIEW
Creation of a centralized auditng team which will monitor the expenses of various political parties
during election campaign. The authority will be directive in nature and will mutate public outlook
through print and electronic media.
Collegium of Ex – CAG, Ex – Chief Election Commissioner, Ex – CJI
Ex IAS
Officers
Senior
Journalists
RTI
Activists
Representative from
National Parties
Financial
Experts (CA,CS)
Chartered
Engineers
Desk Officers Field Officers
Volunteers, Political Activists, NGOs, Other Interested Groups
5. FUNCTIONS & IMPLEMENTATION
→ Authority to decide the active campaigning period for elections.
→ Keep an eye on the expenses incurred in the electoral process.
→ Field officer will assess the expenses made during the election campaigning and will submit an
estimate to the desk officer who will process it further.
→ Scutinized and consolidated data will be published on print, social, digital and all sorts of mass
public media.
→ On the basis of this report ELECTION COMMISSION would be able to take required actions.
IMPACT & IMPEDIMENTS
→Consolidated report will stimulate the public conscience.
→Candidates will be feared of this public conscience & reduce the use of excessive money power.
→No viable candidate will get opressed due to lack of monetary resources.
→Touts and money mongers will be substantially reduced.
→Setting up of NEAT will be a tough job.
→Smooth functioning of NEAT is not a doddle.
→Making NEAT free from political influence is not easy.
6. Central election security force
(CESF)
OVERVIEW
Creation of a centralized security force which will ensure peaceful, smooth and voilence free election
and cease the muscle power during electoral process.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Director
General
(CESF)
IPS
Add. Director
Generals
(CESF)
IPS
Inspector
Generals
(CESF)
IPS
Deputy Inspector
Generals
(CESF)
IPS
2 I/C
(CESF)
Army Cadre
Deputy
Commandent
(CESF)
Army Cadre
Asst. Commander
(CESF)
Army Cadre
Paramillitary Force
7. FUNCTIONS & IMPLEMENTATION
→ Ensuring security to public servants and public at booths.
→ Ensuring that no unauthorised power is intervening electoral process.
→ Ensuring that no voter is worongfully confined.
→ Providing security to election commision officers on scrutiny in the blak listed areas.
→ Electoral process will be carried out in many phases so that force required would be less.
→ 3/5th of force will be recruited and rest can easily be deputed from various paramillitary forces
via rotation policy.
IMPACT & IMPEDIMENTS
→ Will muscle the ‘muscle power’.
→ Will instill the confidence in voters to go out and cast vote without any fear.
→ Public servants on election deputation can work efficiently and easily.
→ Recruitment of new force would be a burden on the state Ex-chequer.
→ Deployment of such force will face opposition from local extremist group.
8. Prolonged election period
The electoral process must be completed in many small phases and voting period extending to 2-3
days. This elongated period would ensure higher voting percentage as the people unavailable due to
unavoidable circumsatnces on certain dates can cast their vote too and also the chaos and rush at
booths will be reduced comprehensively. The pressure on election commision will also be reduced
by such a reform. The distribution of money and liquor on the pre night of election day will also be
reduced substantially as this would become more expensive.
Casting votes
The methods of casting vote must be increased. These increased options will increase the voting
percentage by a substantial amount. The proposed modus operandi are - :
→ Proxy Voting : casting vote on somebody else’s behalf
→ Internet Voting : casting of vote online via internet
→ Absentee Voting : casting vote using postal service
→ Doorstep Voting : representative collects votes door to door (For extreme affected areas)
Feeling that every vote is important will be felt by people, which is the ultimate power in a
democracy.
9. Proportional representation
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
HDI2013
Country Having Proportional
Representation
Country not having
Proportional Representation
Source – www.wikipedia.org
Across the world almost 80 nations are practicing proportional representation which is reflected in
their HDI rise as well as high voter turnout. In this system, there is value of each and every vote.
People know that their vote will get counted and this encourages voting. Besides, all parties will get
an opportunity to put forward their agenda in decision making.
Negative voting option on the EVM machine is required so that people may reject all candidates. If
the negative voting exceeds 50%, then no candidate should be elected from that constituency and re-
election should be held with new candidates. This will give the people an option to elect candidate by
their choice and not by any compulsion.
10. Public awareness
The parties should publically announce and publish the criteria on which it has chosen its candidate.
This will increase the accountability of candidates and public will come to know about the basis of
representation and casting of vote will be easier. This declaration will substantially reduce the money
and muscle power as the basic criteria for representation.
Creating public awareness on grass root level can be achieved by organizing ‘chunavi manthan’
mainly in rural areas so that the rural public is confronted with the real situation of the politics in
INDIA and can decide upon their votes and choose their correct representative.
NGO’s and social workers specially youth must be promoted to go out and help people to select the
right candidate as their leader under the program ‘yuva awaaz’.
Promotion of sites such as netapedia.in and adrindia.org/myneta.info should be done. Database of
political leaders should be prepared and be publically accessible so that people can decide the future
of any leader. Political version of social networking sites should be available where people can
interact with others .This will help in exchange of views across the whole nation benefitting the
people ultimately.
11. Overall impact
(Post Implementation)
ROLE OF MONEY
IN ELECTIONS WILL BE
SUPRESSED UPTO A
GREAT EXTENT
PEOPLE WILL FEEL THE
POWER OF
DEMOCRACY
SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE
IN
VOTING TURNOUT
DEPRIEVED ROLE OF
MUSCLE POWER IN
DEMOCRACY
EVEN A COMMON
MAN WITH LIMITED
RESOURCES CAN
CONTEST
