Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)

www.adrindia.org, www.myneta.info

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About ADR

• Established in 1999 to help improve democracy and governance in India

• Started by filing a PIL in Delhi High Court in 1999 asking for disclosure of criminal, financial and educational background of contesting candidates

• Based on this, Supreme Court in 2002 and subsequently in 2003 made background disclosure mandatory for candidates

• Have been conducting Election Watches ever since

• Has an Election Watch chapter now in each state

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Election Watch• High level of criminalization and role of money power

in Indian politics• Candidate’s antecedents not known to people when

they vote even though candidates declare them in their affidavits to the election commission– Little time between the availability of these affidavits and elections– Several affidavits too long– Low level Information format not consistent – Not easy for people to comparison candidates in their constituency– Assets of several MPs and MLAs increase many fold, but reliable

information not available in time

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Election Watch Process (candidate background information dissemination)• Provide authentic, unbiased information on candidates

antecedents in time to enable voters to make an informed choice

– Get the background information of candidates from their affidavits

– Enter them into an online system

– Ensure that data is correct

– Prepare various reports for media, voters, NGOs, political parties, etc

– Disseminate far and wide

• All this in a very short period of a week to ten days

Disseminating information of candidates to voters quickly• Integrated approach– Through the website for tech savvy and

urban voters:• http://myneta.info

– Through a tool free helpline to rural voters: • 1-800-110-440

– Through SMS to mobile savvy voters• Send MYNETA <PINCODE> to 56070

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Dissimenation Info via web (myneta.info)

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Disseminating Info wirelessly

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To:56070MYNETA 802208

TARAPUR- Cand(1): SHAKUNI CHOUDHARY(RJD) Crim.Cases - Yes (7), Assets 1.8Cr, Liab 1.3 Lk, Edu 10th. Cand(2): SANJAY KUMAR, ….

To get information Information on mobile via SMS

6 lakh people have registered so far

Creating Pressure on Political Structure by SMS Push service• Active for 4-6 months during

elections• Messages sent regularly based

on data• Database includes numbers of

MPs, MLAs, Election observers, MYNETA users, etc.

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Sample messages sent• Bihar vidhan sabha 05 me 50% MLAs par apradhik

mamle lambit hai. Apni party se kaho ki is baat apradhiyon ko ticket na dain

• Bihar vidhan Sabha 10 chunao charan ek me 3 (1 BJP ka aur 2 swatantra) ummeedwar aise hai jinpar balatkar se sambhandhit apradhik mamle lambit hai. Is baar umidwaron ki puri jaankari lekar vote do

• Bihar MLAs ki sampati pichle 5 saal main 300% badhi, is baar aisa MLA chune jo aap ke liye kaam kare

• Other messages based on tickets given to crorepatis, women, election expenses, and so on

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Results• Change is slow and VERY difficult to measure• A large number of candidates with serious pending

cases contesting the Lok Sabha 2009 elections like Pappu Yadav, Atiq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari, Akhilesh Singh, etc. lost.

• Political parties are responding – Major parties have announced that they will give tickets to criminals

• # of MPs with serious criminal cases against them has gone down in last 2 elections (from 5.1 to 3.6 cases per person)

• In elections in 2010, no of criminals contesting elections has gone down from 20% to 14% overall

• New Initiatives announced by Election Commission to curb expenses and on functioning of political parties

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Future Plans (on use of mobile)• Run the sms push service throughout the

five years• Get the messages in hindi and other

regional messages• Include other information in the message– performance parameters of elected

representatives– Information on Political Parties activities – their

internal elections, the donations received, financial parameters, etc.

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