The Election Commission of India fears rampant abuse of money power in the upcoming Assembly polls and is taking effective steps to check that, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat asserts in an exclusive interview to Kumar Vikram. Regarding the complaints of fake entries and other issues surrounding the electoral list, Rawat says the EC is banking on digitization and other steps to ensure clean electoral rolls as far as possible. He cited the examples of Telangana and Rajasthan to explain how the EC reached out to political parties and civil society regarding their complaints about voters’ list.
Elections are being held in five states. What are the key challenges in these states, particularly in Telangana?
Abuse of money and abuse of media or misuse of media are the key challenges, particularly in Telangana. In the 2014 polls, over 154 crore was seized in Andhra Pradesh alone. This time also, all the political parties have expressed their worries and have told the Commission that these (issues) are their main worries. Abuse of money will be rampant, and, therefore, the Commission takes effective steps to control and regulate this. Similarly, media ownership has gone into the hands of political parties through different means, and they are regularly campaigning for the persons who are favoured by the owners. This will be checked.
What are the challenges in other states?
In Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram, there are many other challenges. In northern Chhattisgarh, it is money and media or paid news. Drugs from across the border are a matter of concern in Rajasthan which has a long international border. The EC has reviewed these things with the officials concerned to strengthen the mechanism available there to regulate and check (these issues).
In Mizoram, voting is generally peaceful. But, Bru tribes had abandoned their homes in 1997. They have not returned to even after a package by the government. But, enrollment has been done, and it is being tackled by the Commission.
Similarly, in some parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, there is the Shaharia tribe. They are primitive people and are the poorest of the poor. Their houses neither have roofs nor doors. Only stones are put as walls. They have hardly any worldly possession. But, their participation will be ensured. Awareness programme is on, and they will come forward to vote. VVPAT awareness programmes have also been held. It will have a good impact.
These are the challenges. Our political class is quite innovative, and that is good also because people should be innovative. We have to be aware of all those propensities and remain alert.
In many states, politicians and political parties have raised questions about voter lists and about fake and bogus voters. What initiatives have been taken?
Earlier, the electoral roll used to be only on paper and it was nearly impossible to find anomalies. Thereafter, the Election Commission took the initiative of its digitization. Many things have come out. A lot of voters were deleted on various accounts. We started many programmes and introduced software to ensure the ‘purification’ of electoral rolls. It is being done since 2015. In Telangana, many political parties submitted their lists, which we sent to officials for verification. In Rajasthan, many civil society groups complained about rolls and we took steps accordingly. This way, the electoral roll has become clean without any anomalies.
What is the status of linking of voter cards with the Aadhaar cards? Will the Commission start it again?
The Commission is waiting for the Supreme Court order on this. We are thinking of starting it again after that. There are many benefits of this initiative. First, deduplication will be very easy as Aadhaar is a unique number, and, secondly, identification will be very easy with the help of Aadhaar biometrics. Over 30 crore voter IDs have already been seeded and it will start again.
It has come to light that higher denomination electoral bonds have been purchased in a large quantity. Does it serve the purpose of transparency in political funding? What is the opinion of EC on this?
The Commission will have to take the call now. Earlier, we had expressed concern regarding transparency and the possibility of shell companies which can buy electoral bonds. The government had said that the scheme was still under preparation and the Commission decided to wait. Now, we have contribution reports through electoral bonds till October 15. Our secretariat is now examining whether the concerns that the EC had earlier raised is addressed or not.
Internet penetration is at its peak and the reach of social media has also become wider. Please tell something about the initiatives taken by the Commission to stop misuse of social media during elections. We have already talked to various social media platforms. They assured us of taking steps. Like in the Karnataka elections, we saw the impact and it was very effective. It was a small pilot project. In the upcoming state polls, it will be seen on a large scale. We will interact with them again.
And, based upon the results of the polls, we will prepare for the Lok Sabha polls and also the shortcomings will be rectified in due process. I hope that there will not be any issue regarding the use of social media. Google and other social media platforms will look into fake news through fact-checking. They will check facts to stop the spread of fake news. They will flag fake news, advertisements or any adverse material.
Will expenditure on social media be counted under the poll expenditure of the candidate?
If the publicity will be of a candidate, they (expenses) will come under the candidate’s expenditure. A media certification team is there to look into the expenditure aspect.
Recently, there have been instances of data theft or security breach of database. What steps has the Commission taken to ensure the security of voters’ database?
We have taken many cyber security initiatives, People have been trained. Chief cyber security official were appointed at every places. Even in the headquarters, a full floor is cyber secure to keep the data safe and to stop any breach.
What steps has the EC taken so that parties do not raise the issues of EVMs’ malfunctioning?
The EC doesn’t have the power to stop anybody. But, we haven’t left anything to ensure proper functioning of the EVMs and transparency during polling. Comprehensive advertising has been done. Awareness campaign has been conducted accordingly in each poll-going state. Each stakeholder is aware that these machines are completely secured. Moreover, EVMs have already arrived and VVPATs will arrive by November 30 as per the schedule.
What are the challenges facing the general elections? How is the EC prepared to handle the polling exercise?
We started for the Lok Sabha polls long ago, and preparation is going on as per the schedule. ‘First-level check’ of EVMs and VVPATs is done in many states. Training (of staff) is also complete in many states. This is the reason the Telangana polls are being held successfully within such a short span of time.