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| Money, muscle power pose challenge to free, fair polls: CEC | | | AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, Nov 2: With security during the upcoming Assembly polls to six states becoming a major worry, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami on Sunday said muscle and money power were becoming a hindrance for free and fair electoral process. Referring to the huge number of security forces being deployed in poll-bound states ahead of voting, Gopalaswami said that India, being a large and an old democracy, should be in a position to hold elections in a peaceful manner without the need for any security arrangements.
"Today muscle and money power are a big concern for free and fair elections. To deal with the muscle, we have to deploy more police and security forces, so that voters can use their (right to) franchise in peaceful manner," the CEC said, while speaking at a function organised by International Goodwill Society of India here.
Recalling Uttar Pradesh assembly polls last year, Gopalaswami said the election commission had to mobilise a whopping 4.55 lakh security personnel to ensure peaceful and fair polls.
The CEC, however, noted that compulsion of holding elections under excessive security arrangements was not a good sign for a democratic country like India.
"Conducting an election at gun point does not really give credit to our democracy, but it has happened," he said, adding that things were improving gradually.
He, meanwhile, said that the elaborate force deployment has also helped in controlling the election-related crimes and infused a sense of security among the voters.
For instance, in Uttar Pradesh 180 election-related murders were reported in 1991. The figure came down to 18 during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections in the State, while no such crime was reported during the run up to the Assembly Elections last year, Gopalaswami said.
Expressing anguish over the declining polling percentages, which weakened people's authority to choose a representative in a constituency, he suggested that 50 percent of votes should be compulsory for a candidate to be declared the winner in an election to the legislatures.
"The voting percentage in several states is as low as 50 percent. That too is being divided among the candidates leading to a situation, where only 15 to 20 percent of votes are needed by a candidate to win the election," he pointed out.
"How does one claim to represent the voters, after bagging only 15 percent of votes to win in a constituency," the CEC quipped.
He also underlined the growing disinterest of the urban voters in using their right to franchise. "The statistics have indicated a trend that the more educated you are, the less you are tend to vote...more and more urbanites, who talk much about democracy, are staying away from polling booths," Gopalaswami said.
Citing the example of urban voter turn-out in Lucknow during 2007 assembly polls, he said, "Only 47 percent polling was recorded in Lucknow, of which four constituencies witnessed less than 30 percent polling.” Besides, the CEC said, the increasing use of money power to influence voters was posing a greater challenge before the Election Commission in its objective to conduct a free and fair elections.
In Karnataka, which went into polls this year, Rs 45 crore was spent on various campaigning means to woo the voters. The poll spending involved distributing liquor, freebies, and even cash to the voters, he added.
The CEC said the commission was determined to organise a peaceful and fair elections in the Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Mizoram.
"To check bogus voting, the commission has decided to issue electors photo identity cards, which are being distributed in all these states and will be distributed to all voters of the country before 2009 Lok Shabha Elections," he said. |
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