Indian election: ECI's role

INDIA has just completed its 16th Lok Sabha elections to elect 543 members of parliament. It was the longest election in the country's history, and was held in nine phases from April 7 to May 12. The result of these elections was declared on May 16.
Indian election has always been a much-talked issue among election commissioners and election experts and other stakeholders as it is the biggest democratic election of the world. Since its independence, genuine democratic elections have been held in India, and the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been successfully administering, managing and conducting them.
India does not have any caretaker government; moreover, it has a very complex socio-political and geo-political situation. How does India arrange free, fair and credible elections? How does the ECI ensure level playing field during elections for all political parties including the party in power? How does it establish authority over the administration during elections and successfully conduct the elections?
Firstly, as per Constitution of India, ECI enjoys extensive power. It is responsible for 'superintendence, direction and control' of elections. To discharge these duties, the president and the governor of the state ensure such staff as may be necessary and is requested by the Election Commission. In recruiting these officials the Commission has a guideline, which says that officials having any criminal case pending in any court of law must not be associated in election duty. Moreover, the officials against whom the Commission has recommended disciplinary action or who have been charged for any lapse in any election or election-related work in the past, shall not be assigned any election related duty.
Secondly, during the time of elections, although returning officers are recruited from the government or from the local authority, they are deemed to be on deputation to the ECI. Even during the election period such officers are brought/subject to control, superintendence and discipline of the ECI. This helps ECI to establish authority over the returning officers.
Thirdly, ECI recruits observers of its own, who are officers of the government, to watch the conduct of elections. They have the power to direct the returning officer of a constituency to stop the counting of votes at any time before the declaration of election results. He takes such a decision when he believes that there are irregularities in the electoral process which might influence the election results.
Fourthly, in order to ensure credible elections, ECI always tries to acquire high degree of confidence of all stakeholders, including political parties. It arranges regular consultation with the political parties. For example, before the 16th Lok Sabha election, ECI framed a set of draft guidelines on election manifestos, discussed with political parties and finalised the guidelines incorporating their feedbacks. Similarly, a set of guidelines was promulgated to ensure transparency in funding and expenditure by parties.
Fifthly, during the time of elections, the government in power does not interfere in the activities of the Commission. Even, the role of president is highly esteemed by all quarters due to his neutral position. In the 16th Lok Sabha election, President Pranab Mukherjee did not cast his vote to express his “neutrality in the political fray.” In February 2012, Salman Khurshid, the then union law minister, violated the code of conduct in a rally in the Uttar Pradesh state elections by promising 9% sub-quota to the minorities. ECI then wrote a strongly worded letter to President Pratibha Patil, seeking her intervention. Finally, Khurshid apologised to the ECI.
Sixthly, in the conduct of elections, ECI always shows its neutrality at each and every step taken by it for arranging free, fair and credible elections. It strongly implements all the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) equally to all parties and candidates. The violation of any article of the MCC, even by heavyweight candidates and ministers, is strongly addressed. During the campaign of 16th Lok Sabha election, ECI issued a show cause notice to Narendra Modi for violating Section 126(1)(a) and 126(1)(b). The Commission even ordered the local ECI to file FIR if the reply was not satisfactory. Such show cause notices were also issued to Dr. Nazrul Islam, Minister of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs; Mulayam Singh Yadav, President of Samajvadi Party; Beni Prashad Verma, Union Cabinet Minister of Steel; and Rahul Gandhi for violation of MCC. These violations are always investigated by the ECI itself through video recording of the rallies and other campaign events.
Seventhly, the orders of ECI relating to transfer of officials are always implemented. Just before the 5th phase of the elections in West Bengal, ECI ordered the state government to transfer some officials including five superintendents of police, one district magistrate and two additional district magistrates. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal became furious and challenged the ECI's order. ECI did not respond to Mamata's challenge, but planned to postpone the elections in the concerned constituencies. When this news was published in the media, Mamata agreed to transfer those officials.  
ECI is known to be a 'fiercely independent' election management body of the world. Once the election machinery is set in motion, the electoral process is subject to the administrative supervision of the ECI, and no court of law can stop the process. ECI exercises total control over the entire election machinery, even though the members of the electoral machinery are not its employees, for which the key contributing factors are: (i) India has a tradition of a neutral civil service (ii) neutrality of the president (iii) strong implementation and sanctions of the model code of conduct as well as other legal provisions and finally, (iv) respect towards democracy by all stakeholders.

The writer is the Director, Election Working Group.  
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