Electoral Systems
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.
EVM VVPAT पर SC में हुए तर्क में कमी, सिर्फ 100% VVPAT slips की गिनती की मांग होनी चहिए थी- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7_3_bTjyzc May 2, 2024
Subhashis Banerjee, is a professor of Computer Science and had worked with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi. He gave a deposition before the Citizens' Commission on Election (CCE) and said it is difficult to prove that EVM VVPAT machines are tamper proof.
In this interview he said the petitioners should've only demanded for the 100% VVPAT slips count for end to end verifiability. He further added that EVM is like a black box and no one can prove it 100% tamper proof.
The Supreme Court Judgment on the EVM VVPAT petitions is disappointing, he said. Although, the Election Commission had shared some new facts with the public during the hearing but the Indian elections still lack end to end verifiability which is possible only with the 100% VVPAT slips counting.
Not sharing the source code does not give you an iota of security..
Election commissioner Arun Goel’s resignation, weeks before the Lok Sabha elections are due with no clear reasons communicated, has once again cast a cloud on the transparency and functioning of the Election Commission of India.
Earlier this month, the V-Dem (or Varieties of Democracy) report stated that India dropped down to an electoral autocracy in 2018 and remained in this category till the end of 2023. More worryingly, under its clean elections index, the report said that India was among 18 countries in which the indicator for free and fairness of elections deteriorated substantially and significantly.
12/03/2024