Suggestions on electoral reforms

Dr. Sanjay Singh,
Joint Secretary and Legislative Counsel,
Room. No. 423 A-Wing, 4th Floor.
Ministry of Law and Justice,
Legislative Department,
Shastri Bhawan,
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road,
New Delhi-110001 .

 

1. Refer notification at http://lawmin.nic.in/legislative/ereforms/ereforms.htm

 

2. The following suggestions are offered:

 

2.1. Minor/short term:

 

2.1.1. Every candidate for elections should have been a regular resident of the constituency, from where s/he is contesting, continuously for  period of 5 years before the date of elections. Absence of less than 15 days at a stretch need not be considered though cumulative absence of more than 3 months in a year. even at less than 15 days at a stretch, would be a disqualification.

 

2.1.2. A candidate should be allowed to contest from one and only one constituency. (This would automatically get implemented if teh suggestion at para 1 is implemented.

 

2.1.3. A candidate contesting  to the state assembly should have been a member of the gram panchayat/muncipality/corporation for not less than 5 years.

 

2.1.4. A candidate contesting to the parliament should have been a member of the state assembly for not less than 5 years.

 

2.1.5. A minister should be one who has been a member of the appropriate legislative body for not less than two terms of 5 years each in that body.

 

2.1.6. The maximum term permitted for anyone to be a member of any body at a particular level should be only three.

 

2.1.7. The cost to the exchequer for an elected representative should be decided by the electorate through a parallel ballot.

 

2.1.8. The ballot should have an option to reject all candidates and if such an option gets the majority of votes, the constituency should be put under Governor's rule for one year, extendable to two years.

 

2.2. Major/Long term:

It is a fact that party-based democracy itself has failed in this country. So, will the Presidential system, as in the US of A, work in our context? No guarantee, there. But can’t we think afresh, keeping in mind the lessons we have learnt from our own experiences in the past sixty years? Shouldn’t we tailor our solutions to suit our problems? Here is one suggestion: Our government should function at three levels. Villages should form the units of administration. Villages should be linked through computer networks to the next level of governance, that is the State. States should be linked to the government at the Center. Polls should be conducted to elect representatives to an Electoral College (EC). These representatives, Members of Electoral College (MEC) can be one per 500 or 1000 of the population, but should necessarily be one amoung them. MECs from the village will function as the Village Panchayat (VP). The VP will send a representative from amoung them to the State Legislature (SL) on need basis. This need will be decided by the agenda before the Legislature and the competence of the MEC to address the issues in the agenda. The agenda, of course, will be circulated by the State Secretariat well in advance so that the issues are discussed thoroughly at the VP and every VP can send its best spokesperson for the occasion to the SL. A similar exercise can follow for issues at the national level taken up for consideration in the Parliament. Of necessity, the discussions should start at the VP, ensuring the best democratic process at work always. And there shall never be defections and toppling of governments for the five years for which each Electoral College shall function!

 

Yours truly

 

Veteran Major P M Ravindran

Save RTI Campaign

Save Judiciary, Save  Nation Campaign

Tele; 0491-2576042

 

 Veteran Major P M Ravindran
http://raviforjustice.blogspot.com