Q. Comment on ‘Electoral process in Bihar’. [BPSC-2001]
Ans:
Elections in Bihar is conducted in accordance with the Constitution of India (Art 324 to 329). The Assembly of Bihar creates laws regarding the conduct of local body elections unilaterally while any changes by the state legislature to the conduct of state level elections need to be approved by the Parliament of India.
Electoral process in Bihar:
- Time of Elections:
- Elections for the Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assembly have to take place every five years, unless called earlier.
- The President can dissolve Lok Sabha and call a General Election before five years is up, if the Government can no longer command the confidence of the Lok Sabha, and if there is no alternative government available to take over. Similarly for state legislature the Governor takes the call.
- Elections to the Rajya Sabha are held at regular interval with one third of the members retiring in a staggered manner. Members of Vidhan Sabha elect the state’s representative to Rajya Sabha.
- Schedule of Elections:
- When the five-year limit is up, or the legislature has been dissolved and new elections have been called, the Election Commission puts into effect the machinery for holding an election.
- The Constitution states that there can be no longer than six months between the last session of the dissolved Lok Sabha or State legislature and the recalling of the new House, so elections have to be concluded before then.
- The Commission normally announces the schedule of elections in a major press conference a few weeks before the formal process is set in motion.
- The Model Code of Conduct for guidance of candidates and political parties comes immediately into effect after such announcement.
- The formal process for the elections starts with the Notification or Notifications calling upon the electorate to elect Members of a House.
- As soon as Notifications are issued, candidates can start filing their nominations in the constituencies from where they wish to contest.
- It is necessary for a candidate to make and subscribe an oath or affirmation before an officer authorised by the Election Commission.
- These are scrutinised by the Returning Officer of the constituency concerned after the last date for the same is over after about a week.
- If nomination is not found to be in order can be rejected after a summary hearing.
- The validly nominated candidates can withdraw from the contest within two days from the date of scrutiny.
- Contesting candidates get at least two weeks for political campaign before the actual date of poll.
- The campaign is the period when the political parties put forward their candidates and arguments with which they hope to persuade people to vote for their candidates and parties
- The official campaign lasts at least two weeks from the drawing up of the list of nominated candidates, and officially ends 48 hours before polling closes.
- Once an election has been called, parties issue manifestos detailing the programmes they wish to implement if elected to government, the strengths of their leaders, and the failures of opposing parties and their leaders.
- Slogans are used to popularise and identify parties and issues, and pamphlets and posters distributed to the electorate.
- Rallies and meetings where the candidates try to persuade, cajole and enthuse supporters, and denigrate opponents, are held throughout the constituencies.
- After nomination of candidates is complete, a list of competing candidates is prepared by the Returning Officer, and ballot papers are printed.
- Ballot papers are printed with the names of the candidates (in languages set by the Election Commission) and the symbols allotted to each of the candidates.
- However, since early 2000s the Commission is using only Electronic Voting Machines (EMVs) instead of ballot boxes.
- Candidates of recognized parties are allotted their party symbols.
- On account of the vast magnitude of operations and the massive size of the electorate, polling is held on a number of different days in different constituencies for both the national elections and state elections.
- It enable the security forces and those monitoring the election to keep law and order and ensure that voting during the election is fair.
- Supervising Elections: The Election Commission appoints a large number of Observers to ensure that the campaign is conducted fairly, and that people are free to vote as they choose.
- Election expenditure Observers keeps a check on the amount that each candidate and party spends on the election.
- Voting is by secret ballot.
- Polling stations are usually set up in public institutions, such as schools and community halls.
- To enable as many electors as possible to vote, the officials of the Election Commission try to ensure that there is a polling station within two kilometres of every voter, and that no polling stations should have to deal with more than 1500 voters.
- Each polling station is open for at least eight hours on the day of the election.
- On 27 September 2013, the Supreme Court of India judged that citizens have the right to a negative vote by exercising a “None of the above” (NOTA) option.
- Postal voting is done only through the “Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot Papers (ETPB)” system of Election Commission of India, where ballot papers are distributed to the registered eligible voters and they return the votes by post.
- Only certain categories of people are eligible to register as postal voters
- Elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislature are carried out using a first-past-the-post electoral system.
- The country and state is split up into separate geographical areas, known as constituencies, and the electors can cast one vote each for a candidate, the winner being the candidate who gets the maximum votes.
- In order to bring as much transparency as possible to the electoral process, the media are encouraged and provided with facilities to cover the election, although subject to maintaining the secrecy of the vote.
- Media persons are given special passes to enter polling stations to cover the poll process and the counting halls during the actual counting of votes.
- People working in the union armed forces and state police as well as their wives, and employees working for the Government of India who are officially posted abroad can register for the postal vote
- A separate date for counting is fixed and the results declared for each constituency by the concerned Returning Officer.
- The Commission compiles the complete list of members elected and issues an appropriate Notification for the due constitution of the House.
- Election Petitions:
- Any elector or candidate can file an election petition if he or she thinks there has been malpractice during the election.
- An election petition is not an ordinary civil suit, but treated as a contest in which the whole constituency is involved.
- Election petitions are tried by the High Court of the state involved, and if upheld can even lead to the restaging of the election in that constituency.
- With this, the process of elections is complete and the President, in case of the Lok Sabha, and the Governors of the concerned states, in case of State Assemblies, can then convene their respective Houses to hold their sessions.
- As soon as Notifications are issued, candidates can start filing their nominations in the constituencies from where they wish to contest.
The elections of local bodies is also held in somewhat similar manner but under the supervision of state election commission.Thus, Bihar has a very comprehensive process of election. Even though there are several ills associated with the election like use of money power, Castization of politics etc. the process of election has definitely helped in deepening the roots of democracy in Bihar.
