9 Political Science – Electoral Politics – Notes-1

Why do we need elections ?

Elections are essential for representative democracies. It is the mechanism by which

people will choose their representatives at regular intervals and change them.

In an election the voters make many choices –

They choose who will make laws for them

They choose who will form the government and take major decisions

They choose the party whose policies will guide the government and law making

Features / Conditions of a Democratic Election

Everyone should be able to choose, it means everyone should have one vote and every
vote should have equal vote.

There should be something to choose from. Parties and candidate should be free to
contest elections and should offer some real choice to the voters.

The choice should be offered at regular intervals. Elections must be held regularly after
every few years.

The candidate preferred by the people should get elected.

Elections should be conducted in a free and fair manner

Demerits of electoral competition / Is it good to have political
competition?

It creates a sense of disunity and factionalism in every locality and people complain of
party politics.

Different parties and leaders often level allegations against one another.

Parties and candidates often use dirty tricks to win elections.

Pressure to win electoral fights does not allow sensible long term policies to be
formulated.

Some good people do not enter this arena as they do not like the idea of being dragged
into unhealthy competition.

Merits of electoral competition

Political leaders like all other professionals contest elections to advance their political
careers.

They want to remain in power and get positions for themselves and wish to serve the
people as well.

Regular electoral competition provides incentives to political parties and leaders.

Our System of Elections

General Elections

Elections are held in all constituencies at the same time either on the same day or
within a few days.

By-elections

Elections held only for one constituency or few constituencies to fill the vacancy caused
by death or resignation of a member.

Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections are held regularly after every five years.

After five years the term of elected representatives end and both stands dissolved.

Electoral Constituencies

In our country there is an area based system of representation. The country is divided
into different areas for purposes of elections.

The voters who live in an area elect one representative. For Lok Sabha elections the
country is divided into 543 constituencies.

The representative from each constituency is called a Member of Parliament or an MP

Every vote has equal value

Each state is divided into a number of Assembly constituencies.

The elected representative is the Member of Legislative Assembly or an MLA

Each parliamentary constituency has within it several Assembly constituencies.

Same is for Panchayat and Municipal elections. Each village or town is divided into
several wards. Each ward elects one member of the village or the urban local body.

Reserved Constituencies

Some constituencies are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(SC&ST) from where only the candidates belonging to the weaker sections can contest
election.

There are 84 reserved seats for SCs and 47 for STs.

There are reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in rural and urban local
bodies.

One third of seats are reserved in rural and urban local bodies for women.

Reasons

In an open electoral competition, weaker sections may not stand a good chance to get
elected to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies as they may not have the
required resources, education and contacts to contest and win against others.

The influential and resourceful may prevent them from winning elections. If that
happens our Legislative bodies would be deprived of the voice of a significant section of
our population and make our democracy less representative and less democratic.
Voters’ list / Electoral Roll

The list of people who are eligible to vote is prepared much before the election and
given to everyone.

All citizens aged eighteen years and above can vote in an election regardless of his
caste, religion or gender.

It is the responsibility of the government to get the names of eligible voters put on the
voters’ list.

As new persons attain voting age, names are added and the names of those who move
out the place or dead are deleted from the voters’ list.

A complete revision of the list takes place every 5 years to ensure that it remains up to
date.

A new system of Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) has been introduced to every
person on the voters list.

The voters carry this card for voting. They can also show other proofs like the ration
card/driving licence.