Electoral Systems

India’s electoral bonds scheme has been declared illegal, a rare win in court for those resisting authoritarianism. But many elections, including the last general election, have been fought on these unlawful funds. https://thewire.in/government/electoral-bonds-narendra-modi-rbi 

Many will not know how diabolical the electoral bonds enterprise was, and it is for their benefit that this is being written.

The scheme was announced by the Narendra Modi government through the 2017 Union Budget. The bonds would be a way for political parties to receive money through anonymous donors. The donor would have to reveal their identity to the bank while making the bond purchase, but the identity would not be revealed on the bond itself. Political parties could accept the money without being required to reveal who gave it. Voters would therefore not know who was funding and influencing political parties.

It also undid that part of the Companies Act, under which corporates had to disclose details of their political donations in their annual statement of accounts. Now they were no longer required to do so. The corporates had earlier also been limited to donating a maximum of 7.5% of their average three-year net profits to political parties.

The Supreme Court has now held that the scheme unconstitutional, something that was obvious to anyone familiar with the most basic details of what the bonds were for. But this should also alert us to how weak our institutions are and how, when they mean well for the country, they can just be ignored.

by Aakar Patel

20/02/2024

Why Election Commission's FAQs on EVM-VVPATs Don't Clear Cloud of Suspicion Over Electoral Process https://thewire.in/rights/why-election-commissions-faqs-on-evm-vvpats-dont-clear-cloud-of-suspicion-over-electoral-process     Venkatesh Nayak

While concurring with the judgement (Association for Democratic Reforms & Ar., vs Union of India) authored by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on behalf of the Bench, Justice Khanna in his separate opinion says- “

“19. The right to vote is a constitutional and statutory right,… grounded in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, as the casting of a vote amounts to expression of an opinion by the voter… The citizens’ right to know stems from this very right, as meaningfully exercising choice by voting requires information. Representatives elected as a result of the votes cast in their favour, enact new, and amend existing laws, and when in power, take policy decisions. Access to information which can materially shape the citizens’ choice is necessary for them to have a say in how their lives are affected. Thus, the right to know is paramount for free and fair elections and democracy.” (emphasis supplied)

Chief Justice Chandrachud records the views of the Constitution Bench about the importance of the voters’ right to know in the following words:

“77. The following principles can be deduced from the decisions of this Court in ADR (supra) and PUCL (supra):

The right to information of voters which is traced to Article 19(1)(a) is built upon the jurisprudence of both the first and the second phases in the evolution of the doctrine, identified above. The common thread of reasoning which runs through both the first and the second phases is that information which furthers democratic participation must be provided to citizens. Voters have a right to information which would enable them to cast their votes rationally and intelligently because voting is one of the foremost forms of democratic participation;…” (emphasis supplied)

The levels of transparency that the ECI has adopted are hopelessly inadequate to meet the very high standards that the Supreme Court of India has set for our right to know, as citizen-voters.

https://thewire.in/rights/election-commissions-faqs-on-evms-dont-really-address-major-design-deficiencies  Madhav Deshpande Considering the accepted vulnerability of the VVPAT, it becomes necessary to provide a recourse to every voter who complains of a VVPAT slip that does not match their choice of button press; because now with a programmable part of the VVPAT, it must be admitted that Madhavnon-transparent transformation of the vote is possible even within the VVPAT. VVPAT is a misnomer because it allows only view, not verification.

Answer to Q49 says “If a DRE produces a voter verifiable paper audit trail, it is software independent”. What is the basis for this definition? No reference is cited. The principle of “software independence” was introduced by Wack and Rivest and according to its application to a voting system, “A voting system is software-independent if an (undetected) change or error in its software cannot cause an undetectable change or error in an election outcome.” “Software System” in this definition includes both program and data constants. Since undetected data constants (like a * against an image or an x,y styled response as mentioned in “5” above) may be processed by the unknown program in the VVPAT and CU to cause error in the election outcome, undetected change can cause a detectable change in the election outcome and therefore the test for software independence of the VVPAT + CU fails even on theoretical grounds.

https://www.eci.gov.in/evm-faq-new Last Updated on: 07 February 2024

What are the important legal provisions on the use of VVPATs?

Ans. : Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was introduced by the ECI in compliance to the pronouncement of the Supreme Court in Dr. Subramanian Swamy Vs. Election Commission of India (2013) to ensure further transparency in the system by introducing ‘paper trail’ in respect of EVMs. Accordingly, the necessary amendments were made to The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 as under:

Rule 49A (Design of Electronic Voting Machines)- Every electronic voting machine (hereinafter referred to as the voting machine) shall have a control unit and a balloting unit and shall be of such designs as may be approved by the Election Commission.Provided that a printer with a drop box of such design as may be approved by the Election Commission may also be attached to a voting machine for printing a paper trail of the vote, in such constituency or constituencies or parts thereof as the Election Commission may direct.

(B) Rule 49M (Maintenance of secrecy of voting by electors within the polling station and voting procedures)-(1) Every elector who has been permitted to vote under rule 49L shall maintain secrecy of voting within the polling station and for that purpose observe the voting procedure hereinafter laid down. (2) Immediately on being permitted to vote the elector shall proceed to the presiding officer [.. ] for recording of elector's vote.

(3) The elector shall thereafter forthwith¬(a) proceed to the voting compartment; (b) record his vote by pressing the button on the balloting unit against the name and symbol of the candidate for whom he intends to vote; and (c) come out of the voting compartment and leave the polling station:

Provided that where printer for paper trail is used, upon casting the vote by pressing the button under clause (b),the elector shall be able to view through the transparent window of the printer, kept along with the balloting unit inside the voting compartment, the printed paper slip showing the serial no, name and the symbol of the candidate for whom he has cast his vote before such paper slip gets cut and drops in the drop box of the printer".

Electoral Bond पर बड़ा खुलासा मोदी के होश उड़े, P. Chidambaram Exposed Modi Govt. on Electoral Bond https://youtu.be/VQJikqtyTXE?t=70  Mar 10, 2023 

References in this video 

‘Long live anonymous democracy’: Chidambaram’s dig at EB donations to BJP  7 Mar 2023 https://www.millenniumpost.in/big-stories/long-live-anonymous-democracy-chidambarams-dig-at-eb-donations-to-bjp-511022 Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has alleged that the bulk of the more than Rs 12,000 crore worth electoral bonds sold so far have been donated to the BJP anonymously by corporates, asserting that corporate donation is a way of thanking the government for numerous “favours”.

https://www.millenniumpost.in/big-stories/long-live-anonymous-democracy-chidambarams-dig-at-eb-donations-to-bjp-511022

राजनीतिक फंडिंग की काली दुनिया का खुलासा:4 साल में इलेक्टोरल बॉन्ड से मिले 9,207 करोड़, ये चंदा कहां से मिला किसने दिया कुछ पता नहीं   https://www.bhaskar.com/db-original/news/election-2022-vs-sbi-electoral-bonds-bjp-top-parties-donations-129402682.html 

Adani was 609th among richest men in 2014, magic happens Adani reaches to number 2: Rahul Gandhi  https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/adani-was-on-609-position-in-2014-now-he-is-at-2nd-position-how-is-it-possible-rahul-gandhi-in-parliament Gandhi went on to question the meteoric rise in Adani's net worth, which suffered a massive loss after the Hindenburg report.  The Congress MP also alleged that GVK was pressured by agencies to give up Mumbai Airport, so that it could be handed over to the Adani Group. Gandhi alleged that rules had been tweaked for the move, and also questioned defence contracts for Adani, which doesn't have any experience in the sector.

BJP को गोपनीय रूप से इलेक्टोरल बॉन्ड के जरिए मिले हजारों करोड़, चिदंबरम ने कसा तंज, पूछा- कॉरपोरेट्स दान करने के लिए इतने उत्सुक क्यों?   https://www.jansatta.com/national/long-live-anonymous-democracy-congress-p-chidambaram-dig-at-electoral-bond-donations-to-bjp/2691526/

Electoral Bonds Are a Threat to Indian Democracy  https://thewire.in/political-economy/electoral-bonds-are-a-threat-to-indian-democracy With the introduction of electoral bonds, India is currently the most unregulated country with regards to electoral funding in comparison with other similar democracies. The greater the inequality of political funding, the greater the chances that public policy is tilted towards the interest of the super rich, ignoring the interests of the majority, particularly the poor and the vulnerable. ..Electoral bonds lead to information asymmetry; only the ruling government has information on who lends and to whom, leading to issues of moral hazard and adverse selection... Other examples of corporate influence would be the monetisation of public assets – where extremely lucrative Indian assets are given away at a throw away price, at a loss to the exchequer – or the passing of the widely criticised farm bills....Unless India reinvents its political funding and spending regulations, she is not a true democracy. For India to be true democracy, the dictum of ‘one person one vote’ must be reinstated in favour of the current ‘one Rupee one vote’ regime.  

Give info to ECI on each donor, each electoral bond in sealed covers: SC orders political parties  https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/give-info-to-eci-on-each-donor-each-electoral-bond-in-sealed-covers-sc-orders-political-parties/article61562884.ece  12 April 2019 A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the issue of electoral bonds and their lack of transparency is a "weighty" one and requires in-depth hearing.

Electoral Bonds: The curse of Indian democracy | Podumentary https://theprobe.in/podumentary/electoral-bonds-the-curse-of-indian-democracy-podumentary/ Oct 31, 2022 It compromised electoral transparency and has made political party funding murky in the world’s largest democracy.  Why are electoral bonds continuing to damage Indian democracy even after it was red-flagged by the Election Commission of India?