Electoral reforms
Topic: Electoral Reforms: Money, Criminalisation and Simultaneous Elections · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Election and Representation"
Meaning
Electoral reforms are changes in election law and practice that make elections freer and fairer. They aim to curb money and muscle power, make candidates and parties disclose more, and protect the Election Commission of India's (ECI's) independence. Reforms come by five routes: laws passed by Parliament (mostly changes to the Representation of the People Acts, or RPA, of 1950 and 1951), court judgments, ECI administrative steps, pressure from civil society groups such as ADR, and constitutional amendments. NCERT (Class 11) lists six possible reforms:
- moving from first-past-the-post (FPTP), where the candidate with the most votes wins, towards proportional representation (PR), where seats follow vote share;
- one-third of legislature seats for women;
- state funding of elections;
- barring candidates facing criminal cases;
- a complete ban on caste and religious appeals;
- a law to make parties transparent and democratic.
NCERT also warns that there is no agreement on these ideas and that laws alone cannot do the job.
Example
In the ADR case (2002), the Supreme Court held that voters have a right to know about candidates under Art. 19(1)(a). After that, candidates had to declare their criminal cases and assets. Many of the biggest reforms came from the courts and the ECI like this, because Parliament moves slowly on changes that hurt parties.
Don't confuse with
- Delimitation: redrawing constituency boundaries. It is one part of election administration, not the wider reform agenda.