Electoral Reforms

Two days ago some journalist asked Arvind Kejriwal what their next programme after this Lokpal Bill.
He remarked that it would be Rejection of candidates if none of them were found suitable and 2) recall of legislators if they did not perform satisfactorily.
These are very good topics and deserve to be taken up. However, I would suggest a thorough package of electoral reforms.

1)I would suggest using mobile voting. Mobiles have become ubiquitous and almost everyone has a mobile or two or even three in his hand. A record of one mobile per person should be kept with the election commission. During elections, all those registered mobile numbers should be activated to cast only one vote for MP elections and one vote for MLA elections. This could then be extended for corporation or municipal elections. We already have these voting in realty shows on TV, it should just be extended so that from one mobile, one can cast only one vote.In those areas which are outside the range of mobile towers, there can be EVMs or paper voting could be used.

2) Elections should be completely government funded. At present with private money the winners want to recover the expense incurred a thousand fold. This breeds corruption. It starts from the top and goes down to the lowest level. It would be better funding the election expenses than to bleed through the nose because of corruption. Further, good candidates who cannot now stand for elections because of expenses would be able to stand.Further, only serious candidates who have a chance of winning should be allowed to stand.If necessary we should have a pre-election where voters should be asked whether a candidate should be allowed to stand. Once we have the mobile set up this should be no problem. Only the top 4 candidates should be allowed to contest.

3) No person should be allowed to stand for more than one seat.Indira Gandhi, Lalu Yadav and a host of other prominent leaders were in the habit of doing so. It is a waste of national resources.

4)If any candidate dies during the course of elections, there should be no countermanding of elections. If the person is from a recognized political party, the party should appoint another person.If an independent candidate dies, the process should continue.

5)A person who has been convicted by any court for certain types of crime like extortion, robbery, dacoity, rape and attempt to rape, murder and attempt to murder, demanding dowry,kidnapping and corruption should not be allowed to contest for a minimum of 15 years after the conviction. Even if a person is out on bail, pending appeals in a higher court, he should not be allowed to contest until the appeal is disposed of.

6) Voters should be allowed to vote for 1st, 2nd and 3rd and 4th choice among the 4 candidates and also NONE, i.e rejection of all candidates if none of them are found to be acceptable.A candidate should be declared elected only on receiving more than 50 % of the cast votes.If in the first round of casting no one gets 50 %, the last candidate drops out and his 2nd preference votes are transferred to the other candidates.If still no one gets 50 % votes, the 3rd ranked candidate drops out and his 2nd preference votes are transferred to the other two candidates. If yet none of the candidates gets 50 % of the votes, a civil society appointed candidate is chosen.

7) Who is this civil society candidate?
Civil society will keep a bank of about 1000 good, educated candidates from all states in India chosen very transparently. In case of the above where nobody gets more than 50% of the votes or in case any elected candidate dies after the elections, the civil society candidate should fill the seat.India is a poor country and cannot afford regular elections, no matter what the cause.

8) In case parliament has to be dissolved mid-term because of horse trading, civil society candidates will fill the space and run parliament for the balance term of the parliament. Elections should be held only after completion of five years from the last election.

9) In case a candidate does not perform satisfactorily or has been found to have committed any of the crimes mentioned in (5), the electorate of that constituency can demand his recall through mobile voting. If 50 % of the votes polled demand his recall, he should lose his seat and a new candidate from the civil society bank should be appointed. There should be no re-election.

10) Once a voter is on the electoral rolls, his name cannot be deleted unless an SMS is sent to his mobile informing him who has requested his deletion and to file any objections to the deletion. Unless this process is carried out, nobody's name should be allowed to be deleted from the voters list.
I was on the voters list until a few years ago and I have a Voter ID card. Suddenly, without informing me, they removed my name, probably because of pressure of the CPM which was in power then. I have refused to go to the election commission to have my name included. They removed my name. It is their duty to include my name.I pay all my taxes, why should my name be deleted without asking me?

11)In situation like the present one, the mobile phones should be used to have referendum for topics which the MPs feel they know better than the people who elected them.If we had that in place now, the MPs claims would have been punctured by now.Hence provisions should be kept for holding referendum on important points.