Chief Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi speaks at seminar organised by Moneylife Foundation and V Citizens Action Network

“People say that if elections are sponsored by states, it will make the polls free. That is not going to happen, “said Dr SY Quraishi, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). He was speaking at a seminar titled “Democracy at Crossroads—Need for Electoral Reforms”, organised by Moneylife Foundation and V Citizens Action Network(VCAN).

 Dr Quraishi said that the issue of unregulated money flow in elections is a pressing one. He said, “No candidate is spending white money, but black money. I don’t know how state sponsorship of elections will solve the problem. The moment a minister comes into power, his target is to recover the money he spent in the election. He convinces the bureaucracy to help him, and the people have to pay for them.”

The CEC said, “Speed democracy is not the answer. It is easy to call people out in the streets, but very difficult to send them back. You cannot forsake Parliamentary democracy.” However, he said that many small changes could be made which can make elections fair and free from corruption.

He said that it is important to get rid of criminals in elections. Dr Quraishi said, “People ask me, why can’t you debar a candidate from contesting. We cannot do that. The law must debar them.” Dr Quraishi said, “The law says is a person is innocent until proven guilty. I would like to ask, if fundamental rights are curtailed for under-trials, why not stop politicians who have criminal cases pending against them from voting and contesting in elections; which are not fundamental rights?”

 Dr Quraishi said that people who file false affidavits must be punished. He also said that there must be a way to deregister parties, which are often only shell organisations with no membership and act as fronts for dubious businesses.

 He talked about the Model Code of Conduct for the election candidates, and said that the punitive measures against defaulting candidates must be raised. “For example, if the punishment for giving false information was Rs500 in 1950, it must be raised to Rs20 lakh now,” he said.

“One of our officers once discovered that someone had thrown a lavish ‘marriage’ party for voters without the bride and groom, because otherwise, the cash was being seized,” he recounted. He said how money is transferred in ambulances, funeral vans, etc and how the electoral officers spotted them and seized cash.

He said, “We want transparency in the financial transactions for elections and independent auditing of accounts of candidates. We have asked the Chartered Accountants Association of India to come up with auditing standards, and I am happy to say that they have done so.”

He said, “The bureaucracy is everyone’s whipping post. But in India, entire elections are conducted by the bureaucracy, and when they are under the Election Commission, they deliver.” He talked about the various measures the Election Commission has taken to ensure fair polling. Dr Quraishi said how use of muscle power was curtailed by the Election Commission, like constant surveillance of some politicians and deployment of forces to stop violence.

The latter often led to tussles with the home ministry; because it involved making the police of every station being at the disposal of the CEC and to take orders only form the CEC; and deployment of paramilitary forces from private companies. He said, “Transfer of election officers six months before the polls must be banned. It is necessary to ensure free polling and stop states’ interference.”

He also talked about voters’ apathy. “What people don’t understand is the lower the turn-out, the easier it is for the criminals and dishonest candidates to win.” He talked about how use of face recognition softwares, in places like Manipur, to detect bogus voters had significantly brought down number of people who vote multiple times.

Dr Quraishi also talked about media coverage of elections. He said, “Media should show whether candidates are violating the code, because the government cannot be ubiquitous. It has worked beautifully.” He recounted how a candidate engaging in hate speech was pulled up by the Election Commission after it was shown on the television.” However, he said that paid news is a troubling issue which needs to be uprooted. Dr Quraishi said that government advertisements six months prior to elections must be banned, because it is wastage of public expenditure.

“When people say we should take lessons from other countries like USA or UK, I would remind them that while they took more than century to let women vote, India had granted that right from day one. Who is to teach whom?” He said that measures which can be adopted by other countries are not possible in a country as populated as India. “But through voters’ education and peaceful polling, we see very good turnouts and fair results. Peaceful polling has made sure that in the recently concluded state elections, more women than men came out to vote and decided the electorate.”

He said, “Lastly, I would say that the Election Commission must be given more independence. Just like the chief election commissioner cannot be removed from his post apart from impeachment, the same immunity must be extended to the other two commissioners. The government cannot make up its mind about debarring criminals from contesting in elections, and ultimately becoming ministers, but what stops them from strengthening the position of the commission?” For the same reason, he said that the funding of the Election Commission should come from the Consolidated Fund of India and be independent.

Dr Quraishi also talked about the Right to Reject. “If thousand people go to vote, and 999 people decide to reject, that one person, without even any voting will be the winner.”

The event was supported by around 24 non-governmental organisations (NGO) such as Indian Against Corruption, Karmayog, Loksatta Party and Janhit Manch among others.  Eminent citizen activists spoke on various issues, and presented their memoranda to Dr Quraishi, which talked about the various issues that concern citizens while voting and the need for a better electoral process.