Electoral Systems
In recent years, the election process in India has been converted into one party’s fiefdom. Two sets of methods have been weaponised to subvert the verdict of the people, which are adopted at each stage of the electoral voting system. They are used before voting day, or on the voting day, and after the voting day.
https://thewire.in/government/election-malpractices-india-voter-rolls-evm
Names from voter lists were allegedly deleted ahead of the Delhi elections, as well as Maharashtra state elections. Both occurred in quick succession after the Lok Sabha polls. This is an age-old method which has now been taken to new heights.
The root cause behind the voter registration manipulation is Rule 18 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, which allows for deletion of voter data without notice or an opportunity to be heard by the affected citizen. At the EC’s assurance, the Supreme Court also disposed of a PIL which challenged the constitutional validity of Rule 18.
to insert travelling voters of one party from other states (with duplicate identity cards) to polling booths in a state where elections are taking place, by duplicating Electronic Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers across states. This method was used, allegedly in Maharashtra and Delhi, to general acceptance. I
there is always the possibility of toppling the government already formed by buying out the MLA or MP.
Over the period 2015 to 2024 as many as 10 state governments led by opposition parties were toppled by the ruling party government at the Union. This is done by simply buying the MLAs of the state ruling party, with the goal of making them support the party with the largest financial ability to buy MLAs. The defence of the ruling party is that this method has historically been adopted for a long time.
by Santosh Mehrotra and Jagdeep Chhokar
09/06/2025
The new process will significantly reduce the time lag associated with the earlier manual reporting methods, said a press information bureau (PIB) release on Tuesday (June 3).https://thewire.in/government/under-new-system-presiding-officers-to-enter-voter-turnout-data-every-two-hours-on-polling-day-eci
The new initiative comes after in recent years, questions have been raised on the conduct of the ECI after in some instances, differences have been noticed between votes polled and the voter turnout.
A month after the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Vote For Democracy (VFD), a Maharashtra-based citizens’ platform, had claimed that the difference between approximate votes polled shared by the ECI on polling days at around 8 pm and the final voter turnout is nearly 5 crores.
04/06/2025
Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah has said in his submission to a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) that the proposed ‘One Nation One Election Bill’ is unconstitutional, violative of democratic principles and the federal structure, according to sources.
Justice Shah, who is a former chairman of the law commission, raised several issues about the bill, including the power given to the Election Commission to recommend postponing state assembly polls.
Shah told the JPC that assembly elections should be held for a full five-year term and was of the opinion that he did not support the view that the simultaneous polls would lead to the saving of large amounts of public money.
18/03/2025
Despite the Modi government's push for simultaneous elections, this video explores why the bill is unlikely to pass as opposition parties can easily block it in Parliament. https://thewire.in/video/one-nation-one-election-how-it-could-harm-indias-democracy
We break down the legal, logistical, and constitutional challenges of this proposal, referencing expert opinions and historical context.
From the concerns of federalism being undermined to logistical nightmares in execution, One Nation One Election poses several risks that could harm India’s democracy.
24/09/2024
https://epaper.loksatta.com/article/Mumbai-marathi-epaper?OrgId=459db38e8c&eid=7&imageview=0&device=desktop This article is from Marathi newspaper 'LokSatta'.
written by Shrikant Aagavane
This is the review of a book in english called ' how to rig an election'. written by Nic and Brian Klass
04/05/2024
How to Rig an Election and New Haven and London: Yale University Press (2018), 320 pp., ISBN 978-0-300-20443-8
Book Reiew by Ivan Jarabinský https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spsr.12323
The new book by Professor Nic Cheeseman and Dr. Brian Klaas is a reaction to the current paradox of democracy today. While the number of elections peak, the quality of democracies deteriorates. The authors’ goal is to prevent democracy from projecting an artificial facade to often de-facto nondemocratic regimes. The book contributes to this goal by deepening the understanding of how elections can be manipulated, aims to provide of a set of measures to prevent or react to such problems.
The book's structure identifies six basic types of election rigging identified by the authors such as gerrymandering, vote buying, repression, hacking the election, stuffing the ballot box, and playing the international community. These strategies are later extended into more general tactics serving as a toolbox for potential manipulators. These topics are depicted and discussed based on the authors’ personal experiences from electoral observation missions in various countries around the globe where they conducted numerous interviews with local stakeholders. These experiences are combined with a number of well-established data sets (e.g. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), National Elections Across Democracy and Autocracy (NELDA), Electoral Integrity Project (EIP), etc.) and recent political science analyses. This approach provides deeper insight into understanding electoral manipulations, such as in which situations specific kinds of rigging are applied, how efficient they can be, or how to prevent them.
To list all the authors’ recommendations of how to avoid (or at least decrease the probability of) these problems would take too long. But some of them are cited repeatedly because of their potential to influence elections in many ways. These include increased transparency, voter education, election observation missions and these missions’ willingness to speak out about the country's situation even before the election day. With specific manipulative strategies, other new measures can be applied such as the careful utilization of new technologies, e.g. social media or technological and mathematical tools for gerrymandering prevention, etc.
First published: 21 August 2018
Books: Brian Klaas introduces 'How to Rig an Election' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_XsBf7IRHc
Brian Klaas introduces his latest book, 'How to Rig an Election', co-authored with Nic Cheeseman.
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