We need to realise that selecting a candidate to rule you and me is only the starting point
“The Grand Voting Invitation!” read a card delivered to my home, by a government employee. It added; “[The] Office of The Chief Electoral Officer, Goa, request[s] the pleasure of your voting on the polling date, Tuesday, 7th May 2024. 7 am to 6 pm. RSVP. All voters of Goa.”
Okay, so treat this as an RSVP then. For a long time now, we have been told that India is the “world’s largest democracy”.
In the recent past, government servants tending to the electoral system in India have often reminded us that it is our ‘duty’ to vote. They’ve roped in pop stars, litterateurs, and glamorous others, to remind the people to take to the ballot enthusiastically. Officials are promising to do their job. In the 2024 ‘grand voting invitation’, we are told that every voter would get “assured minimum facilities”. This would include polling stations being located at the ground floor (to help the aged and people with disabilities, PwDs); transportation for senior citizens and PwD; drinking water; adequate furniture; proper lighting; proper signages; restrooms.”
Fine, for a start. But is this enough?
The way politics is headed across India (and in some other parts of the globe too), our Civics books will need to be rewritten. The citizen will need to be actively reminded that his (or her) duty does not end with merely pressing one button once every five years. The job is much, much more. Likewise, the government servant will need to be convinced that holding elections doesn’t mean just going through the motions of fairness. It means conducting a poll that is really fair, offers everyone a level playing ground, doesn’t turn a blind eye to anyone manipulating the system (however powerful). Like, sending a notice to the party chief, instead of to the Prime Minister’s, for the latter’s transgressions. Officials not only need to ensure that the system is fair, but that it is seen as such too.
Just days ago, the Election Commission stood up steadfastly by the Electronic Voting Machines used in elections. The Supreme Court judges accepted the logic of the authorities, in saying that the EVMs are secure, going back to paper balloting won’t work, and manually counting VVPAT slips would be time-consuming. Never mind that Indian elections already take over a month-and-half to complete.
One is sure this is not the last we have heard about the EVMs. It is a fact that we simply still don’t know how these machines actually work, who exactly controls them, and what is the connection between the people who manage or create and audit these EVMs and those in power. EVMs can’t be run without anyone knowing or independently auditing their source code. The source code controls their very functioning. If independent experts are not in the know about this, then it is as good as voting with a ‘black box’, whose operations we just don’t understand. Showing a surprisingly poor understanding of how Open Source works, the Supreme Court argued that the source code of the EVMs “should not be disclosed. It will be misused. It should never be be disclosed. It will become a problem.”
So, our election authorities, and politicians happy with this, will now point to the supreme court judgement. The truth of the matter is that the Election Commission itself took a strong stand against (i) revealing how the EVMs work and their source code, (ii) independently auditing the same, and (iii) thoroughly testing the hardware and software on the basis of which the mandate of hundreds of millions is processed and counted. Surely, this is not the last we have heard of the EVMs, regardless of which party is in power.
Our election authorities need to be above board, without the unexplained departures and replacements in those who sit in offices of high position. What has happened at New Delhi in recent months is there for all to see, and much of this is still unexplained. Likewise, in Goa too, though there is not enough understanding or debate about how the electoral system works and what its flaws could be, there have been some whisper campaigns about the neutrality of those managing the process.
In the Goa 2022 assembly elections, the recognition gained by the Revolutionary Goans just weeks before the elections was a mystery in itself. RG went on to critically shape the final seat outcome, though it won only a single seat itself. Even after the elections, it was a good 36 hours before anyone realised how many votes had been taken by the Revolutionary Goans. This happened as the figures had been kept under the ‘Others’ category. Such an approach, intended or otherwise, made post-result electoral analysis confusing. By the time the story emerged, it was too late for most to understand what had happened. Goa hasn’t had any controversy of a candidate-winning-unopposed in the Lok Sabha, as it happened in Surat.
There are so many other issues over which we need a lot more study and attention. For instance, some voters going missing from the electoral rolls suddenly. This might seem like a small problem, unless such figures are carefully collated and calibrated, for a wider picture to emerge. The high voting turnout that Goa often sees could reflect either a polarised electorate, or even the voters’ list being trimmed sharply. (This means that a smaller denominator keeps the voting percentage “high” in Goa, which might need further study itself.) An alert citizenry needs to keep track of the deletions and additions to the electoral rolls. The system is such that, only someone with high stakes in the same would bother to keep track of this. For instance, in a question raised in the Assembly, the government told its party MLA Delilah Lobo that a total of 2961 (almost three thousand) voting cards had been cancelled from 2020 till date, just in one constituency of Siolim itself.
Care during counting, and ensuring each vote goes the way it was intended; security and excessive care during the long period between voting and the actual counting of EVM votes; and transparency in the whole process are other tasks before our officials.
Likewise, avoiding any form of manipulating in the nomination process should also be carefully taken care of. Poll officials named to oversee the process should be as neutral as possible. As everyone has their own political bias, care should be taken that the officials selected for this task represent all political points of views, communities and regions of Goa. For their part, the citizen should give a go-by to this ‘Festival of Voting’ hype. We need to realise that selecting a candidate to rule you and me is only the starting point. Beyond this, the system should be kept clean and transparent. Even after our representatives are chosen, we have the duty of being really vigilant in how they work, what they do, and keeping tabs over whose interests they serve. Factors like corruption or communalism can gnaw into the entails of the entire system, and distort both the future of India that is Bharat, and also the chances of going ahead in a world that is increasingly both tough and competitive.
