WHY DID EC TAKE SO LONG?
Wednesday, 14 May 2014 | Kumar Chellappan | Chennai
It took the Election Commission of India (ECI) 72 days for conducting the Lok Sabha elections 2014 and announcing the results, making it the longest ever polling process in India.The process for the Lok Sabha election 2014 was set in motion by the Election Commission on March 5, 2014 and the results would be declared on May 16. The polling was held in nine phases starting from April 7 and culminating on May 12.
The suspense and tension undergone by the candidates whose fate was sealed on April 7 is understandable. Even the people who cast their votes are feeling irritated over the wait for the D-day which is on Friday. “Isn’t this a proof of the failure of the ECI which has all modern communication and transport facilities at its command? The whole process could have been completed within two weeks,” MD Nalapat, Professor and Director, department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University, told The Pioneer.
He pointed out that polling was a cumbersome process till the 1990s as polling materials and officials had to be dispatched and deployed to far away corners of the country. “Those were the days when polling materials were taken to the booths with the help of elephants, mules and even donkeys. Not anymore. The UPA Government itself has been claiming in its publicity blitzkrieg that there were no un-motorable roads in the country. The whole country is connected with broadband. These things could have brought down the gap between the dates of notification and counting to less than a 30 days,” said Nalapat.
There is a section among the political fraternity who fear that the electoral process has been spread over two months for denying the Opposition, particularly the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate the advantage it gained in the initial phase. “They feel that they can tone down the Modi wave over a period of time and help the Congress to regain the lost ground,” said Gowthaman Ramakrishnan, Director, Vedic Sciences Research Centre, Chennai.
But experts in election chose to differ with such apprehensions and comments. “This is the best the Election Commission could do with the kind of political parties and leaders we have,” said N Gopalaswami, former Chief Election Commissioner of India.
As news of booth capturing by the TMC in Bengal on Monday was flashed across the TV screens, Gopalaswami asked: “Do you need more explanation why the election process in the country is differed over 72 days? If there is no stern eye, political parties are willing to do anything to win. One-day polling could be undertaken in States like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. But polling can be completed in States like Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra only in two or three days. Then there is the Naxal-infested areas where the ECI has to provide maximum security to the candidates as well as electors,” pointed out the former CEC Gopalaswami, who was also the Union Home Secretary, said more than 150 districts in the country are Naxal infested.
“The entire country can go for two-day poll provided no political parties in power misuse the administrative machinery and no political parties indulge in questionable means like booth capturing and rigging,” he said. He added that Indians can dream for the next 50 years for this to happen.
But Gopalaswami was emphatic on one condition. “When the next Lok Sabha elections are held, all the Electronic Voting Machines deployed in the country should have the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) as directed by the Supreme Court. It will make our election the most transparent process in the world,” he said.http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/why-did-ec-take-so-long.html