The Fourth Annual Conference on Electoral and Political Process reforms hosted by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and UP Election Watch was held at Lucknow on August 18th and 19th, 2007. The immediate backdrop of this year’s Conference was the three Citizen led Election Watches in the 2007 Assembly elections of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Election Watches have now taken place in all major National and State Elections since 2002 and grew out of the landmark Supreme Court Judgments of May 2, 2002 and March 13, 2003 mandating disclosure of candidate’s financial, criminal and educational background.
The opening session was an overview of the recent Civil Society Initiatives followed by the inaugural address by Ms. Aruna Roy. Apart from sessions on Election Watch experience sharing by participants there were sessions on role of civil society in electoral and political process reforms, systemic reforms, role of media, beyond elections-Political Party Reform, perspectives-the RTI link, code of conduct for civil society etc. The participants made several concrete suggestions to the Election Commission regarding election watch, cleaning electoral rolls and voter education and awareness. They also discussed areas of systemic reforms.
The Conference adopted two significant resolutions. The first was to adopt a code of conduct for NGOs and civil society groups working for the improvement of democracy and governance. This code of conduct required all such organizations to be transparent regarding their own finances, and to remain politically neutral. The second was a set of Resolutions on Electoral and Political Party Reforms.
Delegates agreed to carry forward the work on electoral and political reforms, which now included activity addressed at elections at all levels, including panchayat and municipal councils. They also discussed strategies to effectively use the candidate disclosures about financial and criminal background. Experience gathered since 2002 in various Election Watch and related work, has reaffirmed that the awareness of criminalization of politics has grown amongst the public, media and the political parties.
The participants unanimously agreed that unbridled use of money power, muscle power, criminalization and a general attitude of apathy were some of the major concerns of our democracy and electoral system and renewed, sincere and serious efforts must be made to curb it.
The Conference concluded with an agreement to start “Political Party Watch” on a regular, continuous basis as a means for scrutinizing the functioning of political parties in addition to the Election Watch activities in various parts of the country.
Resolution
The Fourth National Conference on Electoral and Political Process Reforms was held in Lucknow on August 18 and 19, 2007. All the three Election Commissioners, Shri N. Gopalaswami, Shri Navin B. Chawla and Dr. S.Y. Quraishi were present, as also. former Chief Election Commissioner Shri T S. Krishna Murthy and some current and former officials of the EC. Ms. Aruna Roy, of the MKSS and former member of the National Advisory Council, delivered the keynote address. She stressed the need for people oriented politics and better and cleaner governance. Dr. E. M. S. Nachiappan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Judicial and Electoral Reforms also addressed the conference.
The conference had attendance of more than two hundred delegates from about 15 states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal,., Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gurjarat. Several NGO's and State Election Commissioners as well as other eminent citizens and media persons also participated.
There were sessions devoted to Election Watch experience sharing from across several states, the role of civil society in electoral and political process reform, and the role of media. The conference participants made several concrete suggestions to the Election Commission regarding election watch, cleaning electoral rolls and voter education and awareness. They also discussed areas of systemic reforms.
Delegates agreed to carry forward the work on electoral and political reforms, which now included activity addressed at elections at all levels, including panchayat and municipal councils. They also discussed strategies to effectively use the candidate disclosures about financial and criminal background.
The Conference adopted two significant resolutions. One was on a Code of Conduct for civil society groups. This was based chiefly on being non-partisan and being transparent. The second was a set of Resolutions on Electoral and Political Party Reforms. It closed with an agreement to start "Political Party Watch" on a regular, continuous basis in addition to the Election Watch activities in various parts of the country.
State Funding of Elections
A note submitted to the Election Commission of India on behalf of ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) January 2006 1. This note is in response to the recent proposal of the Government of India (December 22, 2005) to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider the issue of State Funding of Elections, for which the ECI has called for an all-party meeting on February 15, 2006.
At the outset, it is submitted that the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) is not against the concept of State Funding of Elections for the simple reason that on principle, ADR would like to see the role of private money in the political and electoral arenas to be reduced to the minimum possible but ADR is NOT in favour of spending public money being given to completely unaccountable political parties. Therefore, ADR will not support State Funding of Elections till substantial reforms for the functioning of political parties are firmly in place. The logic for this stand of ADR is explained in the paragraphs below.
It has now become customary, for the last few years, to invoke the Indrajit Gupta Committee Report whenever any group wishes to suggest that the State should bear all expenditure incurred by candidates on elections. However, it needs to be remembered that in addition to the Indrajit Gupta Committee, there was the Dinesh Goswami Bill of 1990; a 1971 Parliamentary committee known as `Jagannadha Rao Committee’ of which S/Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, and the current Speaker of the Lok Sabha, were members; the Inter- Parliamentary Council held in May 1994, at which all parliamentarians were represented), held in May 1994, all of which recommended the idea of state funding of elections in one form or another.
What the current votaries of State Funding of Elections seem to forget is that there has been a sea-change in the political environment in the country since the time of these well-intentioned reports. The country has come a really long way from the time when the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was also the Leader of the ruling party in Parliament, recommended the expulsion of a Member of Parliament of his own party for allegedly canvassing support for the Bombay Bullion Association in Parliament in return for some financial and business advantages in 1951, to now, when it seems to be not uncommon for Members of Parliament to take money for raising questions in Parliament and to recommend expenditure from their MPLAD Funds in return for commissions. There have also been proposals for allowing MPs and MLAs to use their Local Area Development Funds for meeting expenditure on elections.
