Electoral integrity
Topic: Electoral Reforms: Money, Criminalisation and Simultaneous Elections · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Electoral integrity means how fairly, accurately and impartially an election is run and counted. High integrity means the result truly shows what voters chose, and people trust it. It covers every stage of an election: preparing the voter list (the electoral roll), the campaign, polling, counting and declaring the result. In India, it rests mainly on Article 324, which gives the Election Commission of India (ECI) control over elections. It matters because democracy works only when the losing side accepts that the count was correct.
Example
In the Subramanian Swamy case (2013), the Supreme Court held that a paper trail (VVPAT) is indispensable, meaning absolutely necessary, for free and fair elections. VVPAT was in use everywhere by 2019. In ADR v. ECI (April 2024), the Court let candidates who came second or third ask for a check of the memory of 5% of EVMs in each assembly segment, so a doubt could be tested rather than just argued over.
Don't confuse with
- Electoral reforms: these are changes in election law and practice, such as disclosure rules or expenditure limits. Electoral integrity is the quality those changes try to protect.
- Speed of counting: a quick count is not the same thing as a trusted count. A result has integrity only if it is accurate and people can check it.