January marks the foundation day of the Election Commission of India, celebrated as National Voters’ Day (NVD) since 2011. Its purpose is to sensitise the citizens about their rights and responsibilities as voters. The ECI was established on January 25, 1950, on the eve of the first Republic Day.
The Constituent Assembly gave it a constitutional status under Article 324 to ensure the independence of its functioning and decision-making. Establishing a permanent, central and autonomous Commission to conduct elections based on adult suffrage in an era of low literacy and non-existent electoral rolls is a tribute to the foresight of the Constituent Assembly. The institution’s competency, impartiality and trustworthiness have been upheld in 17 Lok Sabha elections, 16 elections each to the office of the President and Vice President, and 399 Legislative Assembly elections. The 400th assembly elections are underway.
Contrary to occasional international experiences, election results in India have never been in dispute. Individual election petitions are adjudicated by relevant High Courts. The ECI has earned the trust of both political parties and citizens of India. The commitment is to enhance and deepen it.
India is the world’s largest democracy having 94 crore plus registered electors. Still, the actual voting figure of 67.4 per cent in the last general elections (2019) leaves much to be desired. The challenge is to motivate the missing 30 crore electors to the booth. Missing voters have many dimensions, including urban apathy, youth apathy, domestic migration, etc. As in most liberal democracies, where enrollment and voting are voluntary, persuasive and facilitative methods are best. This entails targeting the low-voting constituencies and underperforming segments of voters.
The ECI has already institutionalised systems for facilitating two crore plus voters of age eighty years and above, eighty-five lakh PWD voters, enrolling 47,500 plus third-gender people. Recently, I thanked over two lakh centenarian voters with a personal letter to recognise their commitment to democracy. On November 5, 2022, I had the mournful honour of paying homage to the late Shyam Saran Negi at Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh. Acknowledged as the first voter in the First General Election of India (1951), he always enjoyed exercising franchise before passing away at the ripe age of 106 years. His inspires us to cast our vote dutifully.
Young voters are the future of Indian democracy. The next-gen, born around and after 2000, have started joining our electoral roll. Their participation as voters would shape the future of democracy almost throughout the entire century. It is, therefore, critical that democratic roots are seeded at the school level before students attain voting age. Simultaneously, youth are engaged through various mediums to bring them to the polling booths. So is the case with urban voters, who tend to display voting apathy.
In a democracy, voters have a right to be informed about the background of the candidates they vote for. Enabling the voter to make informed choices thus assumes critical importance. For this reason, the criminal cases, if any, pending against the candidates should be notified in newspapers. Also, while every political party is within its right to promise welfare measures in its manifesto, voters equally have the right to know their financial implications to the public exchequer.
Though muscle power has largely been subdued, a few states remain where election-related violence impinges upon the free choice of voters. Violence should have no place in a democracy. Curbing money power remains a bigger challenge in the elections. The scale and quantum of inducement offered to voters are felt more acutely in certain states than others. Though stricter vigilance by law enforcement agencies has resulted in record seizures, as witnessed during recently held elections, there can be no substitute for sincere and vigilant voters in a democracy. Mobile Apps like C-Vigil has helped common citizen report incidents of violation of the Model Code of Conduct, thereby helping the Election Observers initiate prompt action (within 100 minutes) against the offenders.
Hundreds of fake media videos/content are loaded and circulated before every election. Without shelf-life, they continue to linger after the elections are over, especially those which attack key/core election domains. Worldwide, there is a growing expectation that social media platforms proactively use their enormous AI capabilities, in the least, to red flag such evident disinformation efforts. The responsibility to protect free spaces, including free speech, is co-shared.
Rajiv Kumar
Chief Election Commissioner of India