proportionate electoral system policy

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CER

Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India(Towards Proportionate Electoral System)

CERI Policy Document Release Ceremony

National Secretariat: REDS Road, Shantinagar, Tumkur, Karnataka, India- 572102Mobile: +91-98451-44893, Fax: +91-816-2272515

Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.ceri.in

CERI Policy Document Release Ceremony

February 9, 2012

Constitutional Club, New Delhi
mailto:[email protected]://www.ceri.in/http://www.ceri.in/mailto:[email protected]


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Report of Policy Document Release Function

I. Welcome & Introduction

The meeting began with a formal welcome as well as introduction by Mr. Khurram Omer to theChief Election Commissioner Dr. S.Y. Quraishi, K. J. Rao the former adviser to the CEC, Mr.M. C. Raj, the Founder of CERI, Ms. Jyotiraj one of the founders of CERI and others present inthe function. Mr. M. C. Raj also welcomed both the guests with floweret bouquet. Leena D, whomoderated the function, gave a brief introduction of Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India(CERI) and the importance of the policy release function.

II. Understanding PES & the Policy Document Mr. M. C. Raj

Mr. M. C. Raj Founder of CERI introduced the policy document. He said that CERI had come along way since its formation in 2008. So far CERI has organized several national, regional andstate conferences to take forward the scientific approach of Proportionate Electoral System to theintelligentsia, academia, civil society, political class and ordinary people. These helped togenerate a larger debate on PES at the national level. Prior to the formation of CERI substantialresearch was done in countries that have implemented different variants of PES. The first major

breakthrough was the study on German electoral system, which has a provision for reservationwithin PES. Comparing it with the experience of the Dalit Panchayat was immensely fruitfulwhich gave birth to Dalitocracy. Later researches were taken up in Norway, New Zealand,

Nepal and the Netherlands. Experiences of most such countries with multi-party system andcoalition politics have proved PES to be the best one to provide inclusive and proportional

representation of the voters and also to provide representation of the underrepresented. In manycases it has provided multifold representation to the indigenous people in each of these countries.This is the background under which CERI was formed to usher in the agenda of ProportionateRepresentation (PR) in India, particularly to augment the representation of Dalits, Adivasis,DNTs, Minority Ethnic Groups, Women, Most Backward Communities (MBCs) and ReligiousMinorities.

India with its multi-culture and varied multiplicities has already moved into multi-party systemof governance and coalition government, which may not see a reversal in near future. It isessential to mention that the current electoral system of Indian democracy, popularly known asthe First Past The Post (FPTP), is inappropriate to address the problems, hopes and aspirations of

the majority population of this nation, particularly those from downtrodden and marginalizedsections. It is not representative of the majority population as parties with less than 25% of voteswin most of the seats and form governments. Further the percentage of votes gained by a partyand the percentage of seats gained do not match. Thus there is a huge wastage of votes resultingin declining voter interest in elections. PR system does not allow wastage of votes, by providingrepresentation to all voters.


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This system is widely practiced in many democratic nations and they have shifted to PR including our neighbor Nepal. In PR the party gains seats only in proportion to the votes gained

by the party. PR system consists of multi-member constituencies. This will enable two or moremembers being elected from the same constituency in order to provide representation to different

parties. Thus it provides opportunities for smaller parties as well as opens the plank for coalition

polity in a win-win spirit.

The Indian version of PR system enshrined in the CERI Policy Document is not a copy of anysystem that has been adopted elsewhere. It is a tailor made model of PR addressing thecomplexities within India. We suggest the Mixed Member Proportionate (MMP) ElectoralSystem with a ratio of 30% direct seats and 70% party list seats and also two votes system withclosed party list. Mr. Raj expressed his hope that this document may serve as the guiding

principles to push for a policy change towards PES by bringing in a bill at a later stage. He pointed out that it falls within the authority of the Election Commission to bring about changes inthe electoral system of India without necessarily making a constitutional amendment. Herequested the CEC to form an expert committee to have a serious study of the issue.

III. Electoral Reforms: A real need Mr. K. J. Rao

Mr. K. J. Rao, former adviser to the CEC said that today the biggest difficulty is providing fair and stable governance. India got independence in 1947 and since the first elections we had beenfollowing the system that was left by the British commonly known as the First Past The Post(FPTP). Today the entire political process is filled with the filth of criminals. I have observedthis in many elections and the Election Commission has been making all efforts to bring inchanges till 1970s. As early as 1977, the Election Commission made a proposal before theGovernment of India to bring in reforms and even it has spoken about changing the entire systemto PES from the FPTP. But the government did not take much notice of what we proposed and itwent on from bad to worse.

Today more than half of the parliamentarians are billionaires. How did these politicians become billionaires? What is the type of ideology propagated by the political parties? There was a timewhen political parties used to talk and work for the poor, underprivileged and marginalized, butthese days all those talks are no more in political parlances. The present elections have becomeoccasion of showcasing ones money and muscle power. Several candidates are funded by thecorporate and even some of them hail from corporate sector too. For a long time the ElectionCommission has been demanding subsequent governments and all the parties to bar the criminalfrom contesting elections? Look at the amount of violence involved in elections. Even the lowestelection in India is not fought on fair means. No party or government is interested to addressthese issues.

I am not sure if all problems are due to the limitations of FPTP, but I am certain there is a needfor change from the present rotten electoral system to a better one. Reforms in Electoral Systemwould also mean a shift in the fabric of democracy. PES is one of the options that have beenexperimented in various countries. It is a better option than FPTP but every system has itsadvantages and disadvantages. In the given context this could be one of the options but we need


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more study and research as well as preparations at the experimental level if applied. We need togenerate larger debate on these aspects as there is an urgency to change the current format.

IV. Its time to look at other formats of Electoral Procedures Dr. S.Y. Quraishi

The Chief Election Commissioner Dr. S.Y. Quraishi released the policy document of CERI onProportional Representation. In his document release address he said that India is supposed to bethe biggest democracy in the world. We are very proud of being the biggest democracy. TheElection Commission of India is recognized as the best Election Commission in the world for conducting free and fair elections. Our credibility as a democratic institution lies here. We are

perhaps the only country where with such vast population elections are conducted with electronicmachines without any technical flaws and the results being declared in record time. Today thereare more than 740 million registered voters in India. We are internationally recognized for thisand are also invited in various countries to be as observers of their elections. We are alsorequested by various countries to suggest different formats of Elections too.

However when questions of corruption, involvement of money, violence, allurement, etc. areraised before us, we remain dumbfound without any answer. Therefore it is clear that there are problems within our electoral system, despite the various steps of checks and balances being brought in place by the Commission. No doubt that money and muscle power have overpoweredIndian electoral politics. In some cases we hear about 70-100 million rupees being spent for oneconstituency. Many people would ask to stay away from voting. Yet one cant love democracyand hate politicians. Corruption is the real issue and so is the engagement of criminal elements in

politics. The Election Commission had repeatedly asked consecutive governments to bring in arule in order to bar criminals from contesting elections. We have come up with several practicalformats and procedures, yet they were unwelcome. It has to be decided by the Parliament, notElection Commission. When we speak of such reforms, all parties come together to prevent anysuch reforms.

Lack of introspection has created the phenomena of voter apathy. But the danger becomes moreintensive when educated sections would sit in their drawing room and pass comments that all

politicians are thieves and criminals. This is very risky in any format of democracy. The questionis where they are when the government is formed. What is their role and participation in theformation of government? Some would advocate for compulsory voting, but in democracy onecannot compel someone to vote, which goes against the principle of democracy. In Delhi duringthe last Legislative Assembly elections we initiated the campaign Pappu under which we wereable to increase the percentage of vote. Therefore such among the illiterate and lowly educatedclass needs to be overcome with persuasion, facilitation and voters education leading to better,higher and quality participation.

I am sure that the more powers are bestowed with the Election Commission it would lead to a better process. Election Commission as an institution needs to be strengthened. The control of parties and government over the EC has to be limited without any question. The appointmentsand promotions, budgeting process, politically oriented appointments are always demoralizing.The Election Commission is a vital institution in democratic set up and it needs its freedom tofunction freely. There is an urgency to initiate institutional reforms and strengths institutions like


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Election Commission. Its high time that we look into these concerns seriously and bring in theessential shifts and changes.

I am not sure if PES is a panacea for all electoral ills that India faces. I am not sure if PES would be the best. I dont think that taking the examples of Switzerland or Germany, we could work on

an Electoral Reforms in India. In most of such countries the total population would be less thanthat of Delhi or even a small portion of Delhi. Further the process of PES is highly complicated.In the present FPTP system many contestants pose various difficulties in fulfilling the essentialformalities. Further it is also not clear how it would bring in a realistic shift in the paradigm of election and governance such as banning criminals from contesting, limiting the exercise of money, applying caste and communal voting patterns, fair governance, etc. How could PESaddress such issues and concerns needs a lot of discussions and deliberations.

Therefore, as requested by Mr. M. C. Raj the Election Commission would form an expertcommittee on PES and would also want CERI to be part of the Committee.

V. Gratification and Conclusion

Mr. Raktim Mukhopadhaya expressed vote of thanks to all the speakers and the participants fromacross the country. As a gesture of honor and gratitude Ms. Jyotiraj presented the book DYCHE,a volume of 1100 pages written by M C Raj and Jyothi to the CEC Dr. Quraishi and to Mr. Raowhile Mr. V. B. Rawat presented shawls. The function was well attended by representatives of

political parties, members of civil society, media persons, and CERI delegates from across thecountry. More than 300 people took part in the policy release function.

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