Democracy is a very sensitive form of Government and it can easily be prostituted if the party in power wants to do so and Opposition is unable to check it. They can adopt an electoral process. which will make democracy almost meaningless. In India, there are many defects in the present system of elections because it seems that to be true spirit of democracy has not been generated by eight General elections so far held.
We find that any candidate who Polls maximum number of votes is declared elected from a Constituency. In fact a person getting only a few votes may be elected if large number of candidates are contesting elections from that Constituency. Moreover, it is found that a large number of the Voters are not represented by any representative because they happen to cast their votes in favor of those candidates who are defeated at the Poles.
In order to remedy this defect, it has been suggested that each political party should submit a list of the candidates who are going to contest elections on the ticket of that party. They say that the Votes should be cast in favor of the political party and not to the candidates. The votes cast to a particular political party should be added up and total number of votes cast to that party throughout the country should be worked out. A particular number of vote& should entitle the political party to elect one candidate. In the “manner, not a single vote will be wasted and the influence of individuals will be minimized.
Another defect in the electoral system which has been pointed out is that the Ruling Party has an advantage over the opposition because the media of propaganda are controlled by them. It has been suggested that the T.V. and radio should be used by the Opposition parties also and during the elections there should be a care-taker Government which may not allowed to take any important decision. In other words, there should be fairness in elections.
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Another suggestion which was given by the Election Commission itself, but was dropped later on was there should be President’s rule in the States at the time of election. They felt that.
in the States, the Chief Minister and the ruling party indulges in so many mal practices that it is not possible to hold fair elections. In words, they wanted that the Political Party in power should not be allowed to win over the people with the help of fraudulent practices. No denying fact that there are some mal-practices in the States at the time of elections but the method of holding elections imposing President’s Rule will mean giving in advantage to the Ruling party at the Centre and making the elections undemocratic.
Till the elections are fair, it will not be possible to elect true representatives of the people. It has been pointed out that the Congress Party right from the first general elections has not been able to poll more than 48% of the votes. So they say we have been having a minority Government. In fact, no election process can be free from mal-practices and it is wrong to think that with the help of List system, we may be able to make elections fair. There are so may defects which are associated with the list system. One of them is that the number of Political parties will multiply because every leader will think that some votes will be polled by the party and some of them may be elected. So the only solution to the problem is that masses and the Oppositions should be politically conscience and strong otherwise democracy cannot be a success.