manas
manas]
sajo's
WILL&VERDICT
BALLOT EXPERIENCES OF KERALA
Ballot experiences of Kerala have enabled the state to welcome many improvisations in the voting mechanism. Nominations to early Legislative House1 of Kerala that commenced by the close of the nineteenth century were through palace proclamations. By the beginning of the twentieth century the right to nomination was passed over to district heads (divisional peshcars) and they nominated landlords, businessmen, foreign planters and priests.
The Indian Councils Act of 1892 introduced by the British provided limited native repesentation. Emergence of an Indian elite class and their consistent pressure resulted in the implementation of Montague-Chelmsford reforms known as Indian Council Act 1901. The Montague Chelmsford reforms led to the Government of India Act, 1919 and were intended to extend more native support.
This Act introduced bicameralism to the legislature, and an electoral geography was drawn among the rich landlords and taxpayers. In the provinces diarchy was introduced which aimed at responsible governments. The Government of India Act 1919 was not satisfied the will and wish of Indians. After a lot of deliberations the Government of India Act 1935 came into being, which introduced federal and provincial autonomy.Then too, only 15 percent of the adult population could have right to vote in the provincial assembly elections. It had provisions of distribution of power between central and provincial legislatures. The voting right rose to 28.5 percent of adult population in the provincial election of 1946.
The Indian Independence Act, which came into being in 1947, resulted in the amendment of the Government of India Act, 1935. The provincial autonomy that the Indian people fought and won was adopted on 26, November 1949 and it came into force on 26, January 1950. Based on it, a system of universal adult franchise was introduced and subsequently the first general election was held in1952. Most of the former Constituent Assembly members elected to the Parliament. Till now twelve general elections held to the Lok Sabha and eleven elections to the Kerala State Assembly after the formation of the state in 1956.Before that one byelection was held in Thiru-Kochi Legislative Council(1954). It is in 1989 that the voting age lowered to 18 years from 21years.
As Kerala is part of Indian Union, the Constitution provides for a British style parliamentary form of government in a federal union setup that currently consists of twenty-eight states and seven centrally administered Union Territories. The Constitution culminated a process of evolution toward representative government. That process was initiated under the British rule with very limited people’s participation but successively broadened it through representation in elected legislatures. The constitution formally vests almost all executive powers of the government in the President who is the head of the state. The President, however, exercises power with rare exceptions, upon the advice of the Prime Minister, thus the real power rests with the Prime Minister.
An electoral college consisting the elected members of both the Bicameral Parliament and state assemblies elects the President. The Rajaya Sabha or the Houses of the State, consists of members who are elected for a six-year term by an electoral college made up of members of the state legislature assemblies. The lower house, the Lok Sabha or the House of the People is the supreme legislature body comprising of 545 members who are elected directly, except the two non elective members, for a five year term according to single member constituency system, in which the candidate with the maximum tally of votes wins the race . The majority party in the Lok Sabha elects the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister appoints the cabinet.
An analogous structure of government exists in each of the states, it has a Governor, appointed by the President for a five-year term and a popularly elected legislature, which may be bicameral or unicameral and is elected for five years. The leader of the legislature party of majority group or party is elected Chief Minister, who with the cabinet colleagues, are responsible to the legislature, and commands the confidence of a majority of the house. Although the constitution is federal, it returns for strong unitary features, including the ultimate power of the centre to control and take direct administration of the states under the conditions that it deems fit. The overall balance currently rests in favour of parliamentary sovereignty.
Before Independence, different types of voting methods were used in different parts of the country for the limited elections. Those include the marking system in which the polling staff marks the voter’s choice. Later voters were allowed to mark the ballot and put it in the separate boxes for each candidate. In 1931 the Indian Franchise Committee recommended the use of either the colour box system or the symbol system.
For the first general elections in 1952 the Election Commission of India chose the symbol and balloting system but retained the method of keeping different ballot boxes for each symbol. It was only in the third general election in 1962 that the multiple ballot boxes were replaced by single ballot box. This gave much emphasis to secret marking facilities.
In an attempt to improve the accuracy of electoral roll and prevent electoral fraud, the Election Commission of India has recently introduced photo identity cards for voters. In Kerala, issue of voters’ photo identity cards begun in 1996. It’s one’s passport to vote. In 1982,the first experiment with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in India was done in the Parur Assembly constituency of Kerala. The indigenous battery-operated system was designed by Indians and was first of its kind in the world.It is very simple to operate.
The EVM retains all the characteristics of voting by ballot papers, while making polling a lot more expedient. Being fast and absolutely reliable, the EVM saves considerable time, money and manpower. It helps maintain total voting secrecy without the use of ballot papers. A total of 34,200 EVMs are now using in the 23001 polling booths of the state now.
India has a constitutional democracy with parliamentary system of government, and at the heart of the system is her commitment to hold regular, free and fair elections. These elections determine the composition of the government, the membership of the two houses of parliament, the state and union territory legislative assemblies, and the Presidency and Vice-Presidency.
Since the time India became independent on August 15, 1947, democratic process of free and fair elections has become routine. One of the biggest democracies in the world, India as per the Constitution is a Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic. Elections are held at regular intervals as per the principles enshrined in the constitution. The major laws concerned are Representation of the People Act, 1950, which essentially deals with the preparation and revision of electoral rolls,and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 that takes into account all aspects of conduct of elections and settling of post election disputes.
Upholding the Election Commission,(EC) as the supreme body for conducting the electoral process, the Supreme Court has held that where the enacted laws are silent or make insufficient provision to deal with a given situation in the conduct of elections, the Election Commission has the residuary powers under the Constitution to act in an appropriate manner. Indian elections are indeed huge. General elections on a national scale involve nearly five million polling personnel and civil police forces. This huge election machinery is deemed to be on deputation to the Election Commission and is subject to its control and discipline during the electoral process.
Elections to the Indian Lok Sabha are considered as the largest in the world. The electorate exceeds 600 million in 8,00,000 polling stations spread across the country. As per the Election Commission statistics 2,525,595 ballot boxes were used during General Elections in 1999.
India is a founding member of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Stockholm, Sweden. In the recent past, the Commission has expanded international contacts by way of sharing of experience and expertise in the areas of Electoral Management and Administration, Electoral Laws and Reforms. Election Officials from the national electoral bodies and other delegates from several countries - Russia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nigeria, Australia and the United States have visited the Commission for a better understanding of the Indian Electoral Process. The Commission has also provided experts and observers for elections to other countries in co-operation with the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
ELECTION COMMISSION
Election Commission of India, (ECI or EC) is a permanent Constitutional Body, established in accordance with the Constitution on January 25, 1950. Originally a Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) headed EC. Few years ago, provision was made to co-opt two election commissioners apart from a CEC. For the first time two additional Commissioners were appointed on October 16, 1989 but they held this position very briefly till January 1, 1990. In October 1993 two additional Election Commissioners were appointed to enable multi-member Commission with decision-making power by majority vote. The President appoints the CEC as well as the Election Commissioners.The presnt Election Commission of India consists, Dr.M.S.GILL-Chief ElectionCommissioner,and G.V.G.Krishnamurthy-and Mr. J.M. Lynogdoh - Election Commissioners.
The Former Chief Election Commissioners are- Sukumar Sen ( 21 March 1950 to 19December1958),KVK Sundaram(20 December 1958 to30September1967),SP Sen Verma (1 October1967to30September1972),Dr Nagendra Singh(1 October 1972 to 6 February1973),T.Swaminathan(7February1973to17June1977),SL Shakdhar( 18 June 1977to17 June1982),RKTrivedi(18June1982to31December1985)RVS Peri Sastri1 January 1986to25 November1990),V.S.Ramadevi(26November1990to11December1990),T.N.Seshan(12, December 1990 to 11 December 1996)
v Registration with Election Commission.
Political parties have to be registered with the Election Commission. The Commission determines whether the party is structured and committed to principles of democracy, secularism and socialism in accordance with the Indian Constitution and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. Parties are expected to hold organisational elections and have a written constitution. The Anti-defection law, passed in 1985, prevents MPs or MLAs elected as candidates from one party forming or joining a new party, unless they comprise more than one-third of the original party in the legislature.
According to certain criteria, set by the Election Commission regarding the length of political activity and success in elections, parties are categorised by the Commission as National or State parties, or simply declared registered-unrecognised parties. How a party is classified determines a party’s right to certain privileges, such as access to electoral rolls and provision of time for political broadcasts on the state-owned television and radio stations and also the important question of the allocation of the party symbol. National parties are given a symbol that is for their exclusive use, throughout the country. State parties have the sole use of a symbol in the state in which they are recognised as registered-unrecognized parties can choose a symbol from a selection of ‘free’ symbols.
Limit on poll expenses
There are tight legal limits on the amount of money a candidate can spend during the election campaign. In most Lok Sabha constituencies the limit as recently amended in December 1997 is Rs 15,00,000/-, although in some states the limit is Rs. 6,00,000/- For Assembly elections the highest limit is Rs. 6,00,000/-, the lowest Rs 3,00,000/-. Although supporters of a candidate can spend as much as they like to help out with a campaign, they have to get written permission of the candidate, and whilst parties are allowed to spend as much money on campaigns as they want, recent Supreme Court judgments have said that, unless a political party can specifically account for money spent during the campaign, it will consider any activities as being funded by the candidates and counting towards their election expenses. The accountability imposed on the candidates and parties has curtailed some of the extravagant campaigning that was previously a part of Indian elections.
1 Travancore Legislative Council
sajo's
WILL&VERDICT
BALLOT EXPERIENCES OF KERALA
Ballot experiences of Kerala have enabled the state to welcome many improvisations in the voting mechanism. Nominations to early Legislative House1 of Kerala that commenced by the close of the nineteenth century were through palace proclamations. By the beginning of the twentieth century the right to nomination was passed over to district heads (divisional peshcars) and they nominated landlords, businessmen, foreign planters and priests.
The Indian Councils Act of 1892 introduced by the British provided limited native repesentation. Emergence of an Indian elite class and their consistent pressure resulted in the implementation of Montague-Chelmsford reforms known as Indian Council Act 1901. The Montague Chelmsford reforms led to the Government of India Act, 1919 and were intended to extend more native support.
This Act introduced bicameralism to the legislature, and an electoral geography was drawn among the rich landlords and taxpayers. In the provinces diarchy was introduced which aimed at responsible governments. The Government of India Act 1919 was not satisfied the will and wish of Indians. After a lot of deliberations the Government of India Act 1935 came into being, which introduced federal and provincial autonomy.Then too, only 15 percent of the adult population could have right to vote in the provincial assembly elections. It had provisions of distribution of power between central and provincial legislatures. The voting right rose to 28.5 percent of adult population in the provincial election of 1946.
The Indian Independence Act, which came into being in 1947, resulted in the amendment of the Government of India Act, 1935. The provincial autonomy that the Indian people fought and won was adopted on 26, November 1949 and it came into force on 26, January 1950. Based on it, a system of universal adult franchise was introduced and subsequently the first general election was held in1952. Most of the former Constituent Assembly members elected to the Parliament. Till now twelve general elections held to the Lok Sabha and eleven elections to the Kerala State Assembly after the formation of the state in 1956.Before that one byelection was held in Thiru-Kochi Legislative Council(1954). It is in 1989 that the voting age lowered to 18 years from 21years.
As Kerala is part of Indian Union, the Constitution provides for a British style parliamentary form of government in a federal union setup that currently consists of twenty-eight states and seven centrally administered Union Territories. The Constitution culminated a process of evolution toward representative government. That process was initiated under the British rule with very limited people’s participation but successively broadened it through representation in elected legislatures. The constitution formally vests almost all executive powers of the government in the President who is the head of the state. The President, however, exercises power with rare exceptions, upon the advice of the Prime Minister, thus the real power rests with the Prime Minister.
An electoral college consisting the elected members of both the Bicameral Parliament and state assemblies elects the President. The Rajaya Sabha or the Houses of the State, consists of members who are elected for a six-year term by an electoral college made up of members of the state legislature assemblies. The lower house, the Lok Sabha or the House of the People is the supreme legislature body comprising of 545 members who are elected directly, except the two non elective members, for a five year term according to single member constituency system, in which the candidate with the maximum tally of votes wins the race . The majority party in the Lok Sabha elects the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister appoints the cabinet.
An analogous structure of government exists in each of the states, it has a Governor, appointed by the President for a five-year term and a popularly elected legislature, which may be bicameral or unicameral and is elected for five years. The leader of the legislature party of majority group or party is elected Chief Minister, who with the cabinet colleagues, are responsible to the legislature, and commands the confidence of a majority of the house. Although the constitution is federal, it returns for strong unitary features, including the ultimate power of the centre to control and take direct administration of the states under the conditions that it deems fit. The overall balance currently rests in favour of parliamentary sovereignty.
Before Independence, different types of voting methods were used in different parts of the country for the limited elections. Those include the marking system in which the polling staff marks the voter’s choice. Later voters were allowed to mark the ballot and put it in the separate boxes for each candidate. In 1931 the Indian Franchise Committee recommended the use of either the colour box system or the symbol system.
For the first general elections in 1952 the Election Commission of India chose the symbol and balloting system but retained the method of keeping different ballot boxes for each symbol. It was only in the third general election in 1962 that the multiple ballot boxes were replaced by single ballot box. This gave much emphasis to secret marking facilities.
In an attempt to improve the accuracy of electoral roll and prevent electoral fraud, the Election Commission of India has recently introduced photo identity cards for voters. In Kerala, issue of voters’ photo identity cards begun in 1996. It’s one’s passport to vote. In 1982,the first experiment with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in India was done in the Parur Assembly constituency of Kerala. The indigenous battery-operated system was designed by Indians and was first of its kind in the world.It is very simple to operate.
The EVM retains all the characteristics of voting by ballot papers, while making polling a lot more expedient. Being fast and absolutely reliable, the EVM saves considerable time, money and manpower. It helps maintain total voting secrecy without the use of ballot papers. A total of 34,200 EVMs are now using in the 23001 polling booths of the state now.
India has a constitutional democracy with parliamentary system of government, and at the heart of the system is her commitment to hold regular, free and fair elections. These elections determine the composition of the government, the membership of the two houses of parliament, the state and union territory legislative assemblies, and the Presidency and Vice-Presidency.
Since the time India became independent on August 15, 1947, democratic process of free and fair elections has become routine. One of the biggest democracies in the world, India as per the Constitution is a Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic. Elections are held at regular intervals as per the principles enshrined in the constitution. The major laws concerned are Representation of the People Act, 1950, which essentially deals with the preparation and revision of electoral rolls,and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 that takes into account all aspects of conduct of elections and settling of post election disputes.
Upholding the Election Commission,(EC) as the supreme body for conducting the electoral process, the Supreme Court has held that where the enacted laws are silent or make insufficient provision to deal with a given situation in the conduct of elections, the Election Commission has the residuary powers under the Constitution to act in an appropriate manner. Indian elections are indeed huge. General elections on a national scale involve nearly five million polling personnel and civil police forces. This huge election machinery is deemed to be on deputation to the Election Commission and is subject to its control and discipline during the electoral process.
Elections to the Indian Lok Sabha are considered as the largest in the world. The electorate exceeds 600 million in 8,00,000 polling stations spread across the country. As per the Election Commission statistics 2,525,595 ballot boxes were used during General Elections in 1999.
India is a founding member of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), Stockholm, Sweden. In the recent past, the Commission has expanded international contacts by way of sharing of experience and expertise in the areas of Electoral Management and Administration, Electoral Laws and Reforms. Election Officials from the national electoral bodies and other delegates from several countries - Russia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nigeria, Australia and the United States have visited the Commission for a better understanding of the Indian Electoral Process. The Commission has also provided experts and observers for elections to other countries in co-operation with the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
ELECTION COMMISSION
Election Commission of India, (ECI or EC) is a permanent Constitutional Body, established in accordance with the Constitution on January 25, 1950. Originally a Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) headed EC. Few years ago, provision was made to co-opt two election commissioners apart from a CEC. For the first time two additional Commissioners were appointed on October 16, 1989 but they held this position very briefly till January 1, 1990. In October 1993 two additional Election Commissioners were appointed to enable multi-member Commission with decision-making power by majority vote. The President appoints the CEC as well as the Election Commissioners.The presnt Election Commission of India consists, Dr.M.S.GILL-Chief ElectionCommissioner,and G.V.G.Krishnamurthy-and Mr. J.M. Lynogdoh - Election Commissioners.
The Former Chief Election Commissioners are- Sukumar Sen ( 21 March 1950 to 19December1958),KVK Sundaram(20 December 1958 to30September1967),SP Sen Verma (1 October1967to30September1972),Dr Nagendra Singh(1 October 1972 to 6 February1973),T.Swaminathan(7February1973to17June1977),SL Shakdhar( 18 June 1977to17 June1982),RKTrivedi(18June1982to31December1985)RVS Peri Sastri1 January 1986to25 November1990),V.S.Ramadevi(26November1990to11December1990),T.N.Seshan(12, December 1990 to 11 December 1996)
v Registration with Election Commission.
Political parties have to be registered with the Election Commission. The Commission determines whether the party is structured and committed to principles of democracy, secularism and socialism in accordance with the Indian Constitution and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. Parties are expected to hold organisational elections and have a written constitution. The Anti-defection law, passed in 1985, prevents MPs or MLAs elected as candidates from one party forming or joining a new party, unless they comprise more than one-third of the original party in the legislature.
According to certain criteria, set by the Election Commission regarding the length of political activity and success in elections, parties are categorised by the Commission as National or State parties, or simply declared registered-unrecognised parties. How a party is classified determines a party’s right to certain privileges, such as access to electoral rolls and provision of time for political broadcasts on the state-owned television and radio stations and also the important question of the allocation of the party symbol. National parties are given a symbol that is for their exclusive use, throughout the country. State parties have the sole use of a symbol in the state in which they are recognised as registered-unrecognized parties can choose a symbol from a selection of ‘free’ symbols.
Limit on poll expenses
There are tight legal limits on the amount of money a candidate can spend during the election campaign. In most Lok Sabha constituencies the limit as recently amended in December 1997 is Rs 15,00,000/-, although in some states the limit is Rs. 6,00,000/- For Assembly elections the highest limit is Rs. 6,00,000/-, the lowest Rs 3,00,000/-. Although supporters of a candidate can spend as much as they like to help out with a campaign, they have to get written permission of the candidate, and whilst parties are allowed to spend as much money on campaigns as they want, recent Supreme Court judgments have said that, unless a political party can specifically account for money spent during the campaign, it will consider any activities as being funded by the candidates and counting towards their election expenses. The accountability imposed on the candidates and parties has curtailed some of the extravagant campaigning that was previously a part of Indian elections.
1 Travancore Legislative Council
posted by Georgekutty Samuel (CHEGU) at Sunday, March 12, 2006
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