DEMOCRACY AND ELECTIONS : ELECTION PROCESS & PUBLIC OPINION

Elections and Democracy

Modern democratic states have representative governments. Large size and population of modern democratic states make it difficult to practise direct democracy as a form of government. Hence, all modern democracies have indirect or representative governments, which are elected by people. These representatives are chosen by people through elections. Thus, elections have assumed a very important role in the formation of modern representative democracy.

An election is a contest between different political parties for getting people’s support. At times, an individual can also contest an election as an independent candidate. The advantages of contesting elections as a party candidate are as follows :

i) Political parties follow specific policies; therefore, when a candidate represents a party, it is easier for voters to know what he stands for.

ii) Party candidates get funds from political parties to organise election campaigns.

iii) Party volunteers may be provided by the party to the candidate during the process of electioneering

iv) Well-known leaders of the party canvass for party candidates and address their rallies.

THE ELECTION PROCESS

Elections in a democratic system are based on the principle of equality i.e. one person, one vote. All persons irrespective of caste, colour, creed, sex or religion enjoy certain political rights. Among these rights, the most important right is the right to vote.

In politics, everyone is equal-every person has an equal say in the formation of government.

Secret Ballot : The voter casts his vote secretly in an enclosure, so that no one comes to know of the choice he has made. In representative democracy, secret voting is preferred; otherwise, the voter may not exercise his true choice openly due to fear of intimidation and undue influence.

Constituency : Constituencies are marked in order to carry out the election process with effi ciency. Constituency is the territorial area from where a candidate contests elections. If only one person is to be elected from a constituency, it is called a single member constituency. If several representatives are elected from the same constituency, then it is called a multi-member constituency.

The entire election process, e.g. in India, is conducted, controlled and supervised by an independent body called the Election Commission. It ensures free and fair elections. The Election Commission fixes and announces the dates of elections in our country.

The Election Commission has another very important responsibility. It makes sure that the party in power does not get undue advantage over other parties. The process of election runs through several formal stages. This process comprises of :

i) Announcement of dates
ii) Filing of nomination papers
iii) Scrutiny of applications
iv) Withdrawal of applications
v) Publication of the final list
vi) Campaigning
vii) Casting of votes
viii) Announcement of results

In fact, the moment the Election Commission announces the dates of elections, political parties start their activities. The first task of political parties becomes the selection of candidates who are going to contest in elections as their party candidates.

Modern electioneering is a cumbersome process. It needs a huge organisation to manage it, which is provided by political parties. Moreover, elections require a reasonable amount of fund, which is also provided by political parties.

i) Selection of Candidates :

In the functioning of representative democracy, the role of political parties has become both, indispensable and very important. In fact, political parties have given an organized shape to democratic politics. Political parties field and support their candidates, and organise their campaigns.

Every political party announces specific programmes and promises to implement these programmes in case it comes to power. Voters while casting votes for a candidate of a particular party do so knowing fully well the programmes and policies of that party.

ii) Nomination :

Once election dates are announced, political parties have to choose their candidates through a process of selection. Then, candidates have to file their nominations to election offices which are appointed by the Election Commission. There is a last date for fi ling nomination papers.

After all nominations have been filed, there is a process of scrutiny. It is done to check whether all information given in nomination papers is correct. If there is a doubt or a candidate is not found eligible, his/her nomination paper is rejected. Once the scrutiny is over, candidates are given a date for withdrawal.

The withdrawal process makes sure that (a) there is as little wastage of votes as possible and (b) that all names printed on ballot paper are those of serious candidates.

iii) Symbols :

Political parties have symbols which are allotted by the Election Commission (EC). The EC allots symbols to each political party and makes sure that they are not similar because they can confuse voters. In India, symbols are significant for the following reasons :

• They are a help for illiterate voters who cannot read names of candidates.
• They help in differentiating between two candidates having the same name.
• They refl ect ideology of the concerned political party.

iv) Campaigning :

Campaigning is the process by which a candidate tries to persuade voters to vote for him rather than for others. Campaigning stops 48 hours before polling. Each political party and every candidate tries to reach as many voters as possible. A number of campaign techniques are involved in election process. Some of these are :

• Holding of public meetings which are addressed by candidates and a number of local and national leaders of a party.

• Pasting of posters on walls and putting up large and small hoardings on roadside.

• Distinction of handbills which highlight main issues of their manifesto.

• Taking out procession in support of different candidates.

• Door-to-door appeal by influential people in party and locality.

• Broadcasting and telecasting speeches of various party leaders.

v) Counting of Votes and Declaration of Results :

After voting is over, ballot boxes are sealed and taken to counting centres. During counting, the candidate or his representative is present. After counting, a candidate getting a simple majority is declared elected. At times, simple majority leads to problems.

The elected candidate represents majority when there are only two candidates, but not so if there are three or more candidates; e.g. if A gets 40 and B, C and D get 20 votes, and then A is declared elected. Now, though A has got 40 votes he does not refl ect the majority because 60 votes are actually against him.

Elections are a very important part of democracy because the entire fortification of a democratic system depends on how elections are held.

DEMOCRACY AND ALIENATION

Alienation amounts to separation from one’s genuine or essential nature. In actual practice, the functioning of most democratic systems fare poorly by the standards of personal autonomy and popular rule. What passes for democracy in the modern world tends to be a limited and indirect form of democracy, thereby alienating the individual citizen.

This democracy is little more than, what Joseph Schumpeter referred to as an ‘institutional arrangement’ for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for peoples’ vote.

This institutional arrangement has been criticised by radical democrats for reducing popular participation to a near meaningless ritual i.e. casting a vote every few years for politicians who can only be removed by replacing them with another set of politicians.

In short, people never rule and the growing gulf between government and people is refl ected in the spread of inertia, apathy and alienation.

DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC OPINION

To a great extent, democracy depends on public opinion. In a representative democracy, every government has to think of what will be the public reaction to its policies. All parties want to capture and retain power.

Coming back to power in the next successive election depends on what people think about its work when the party was in power. Strong public opinion plays a very significant role in capture of power and forming government by a single party or a combination of parties, called coalition.

If the public is alert and intelligent and keeps itself informed, government cannot take the risk of disregarding people’s aspirations. If it disregards their aspirations, it instantly becomes unpopular.

On the other hand, if public is not alert and intelligent, government can become irresponsible? At times, this might threaten the very foundations of democracy.

Formulation of Public Opinion :

Public opinion is formed in many ways and several agencies contribute in shaping public opinion. For a healthy public opinion, citizens should know what is happening around them, in their own country and in the world at large.

A country’s government makes policies not only about internal problems, but has a foreign policy also. A citizen must hear different opinions in order to make up his/her mind.

Thus for democracy to work well, citizens need to apprise themselves of various views. Among the agencies, which help in formulating sound public opinion are the press, the electronic media and the cinema. Democracy allows a person to contribute his/her share of opinion in decision making.

For all this, there is a necessity of free discussion and argument. Democratic government gives a lot of freedom to the ordinary citizen. However, citizens have to use freedom with responsibility, restraint and discipline. If people have some grievances, they must show them through channels provided by the democratic system. Acts of indiscipline on the part of citizens might wreck the democratic set up of a system. 

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