Date:12/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/12/stories/2008091255771100.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

‘Money and muscle leave electoral system flawed’

Special Correspondent

Lyngdoh calls for fundamental changes

— Photo: K. Pichumani

KEEN OBSERVERS: Naresh Gupta, Chief Electoral Officer (left); J. M. Lyngdoh, former Chief Election Commissioner (centre); and Albert Muthumalai, principal, Loyola College, at a meeting in Chennai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Democratic legitimacy primarily depends on the electoral system providing a level playing field. But the current system in India is full of problems owing to criminalisation, blatant use of money power and defects in the electoral laws, J. M. Lyngdoh, former Chief Election Commissioner, said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the ‘Expert Consultation on Electoral Reforms’ organised by the School of Media Studies, Loyola College, he said a new set of educated and younger politicians were replacing the old, rural, “rough and ready” politicians, but the change was not necessarily for the better.

The system, he reckoned, needed fundamental changes, including the adoption of Proportional Representation, to ensure all people were better represented. He recommended that half the seats be filled by the current “first-past-the-post” system, with the other half filled according to the percentage of votes polled by each party.

Mr. Lyngdoh also favoured stronger measures to reduce the criminalisation of politics. The Election Commission had already suggested that more stringent penalties, including permanent debarment of candidates with criminal antecedents, and these should be adopted immediately.

Answering a question on the politicisation of the Commission itself, with retired commissioners and electoral officers taking up political office, he said it was a sad trend.

Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta presented a survey of the electoral system in India. Many reforms that were possible in the western democracies were difficult in India, he said, and illiteracy hampered the implementation of more efficient systems.

But the Commission was looking at micro-management of problems and was evolving means of correcting the system.

Giving the people the chance not to vote for any candidate through a “none of the above” choice would be a good first step towards reforming the system, he said.