Musings on Elections-3 Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan Counting of Voting Slips in 1952 Elections A total of 10 lakh polling stations would be set up this time as compared to around nine lakh in 2014.

Musings on Elections-3
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

Counting of Voting Slips in 1952 Elections

A total of 10 lakh polling stations would be set up this time as compared to around nine lakh in 2014.
In a first, candidates with criminal antecedents will have to publish information in this regard in newspapers and through TV channels on three occasions during the campaign period.
The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and postal ballot papers would for the first time carry the photograph of all the candidates to help voters identify the political leaders in the fray. The cost of the Lok Sabha elections is borne by the Government of India. Only the honorariums of the poll observers are paid by the Election Commission. When general elections are held simultaneously with Assembly polls, the cost is shared by the Centre and the respective state governments on a 50:50 basis. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Voter-verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) were used in eight constituencies. This time, VVPATs were used in all the constituencies. In Lok Sabha elections, the None of the Above or NOTA option was first used in 2014. As for the May, 2019 general election here are the fun facts. The ECI had set up a total of 10 lakh polling stations across the country, 10% more than 2014 for the May, 2019 general elections.
In a first, candidates with criminal antecedents had to advertise their criminal records in newspapers and through television channels.
For the first time , the EVMs and postal ballot papers carried the photographs of all the candidates along with their party names and symbols.
For the first time, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) were used in all EVMs across the country.
Around 900 million people were eligible to vote in this election, which is nearly the total population of Europe and Brazil, combined.
84.3 million people had cast their votes for the first time in Lok Sabha polls 2019. 15 million voters voters between 18 and 19 years of age had cast their votes in the 2019 general elections.
For the first time, 12 big-sized EVMs were used at every polling booth ,in the Nizamabad district of Telangana, as a whopping 185 candidates competed.
The richest candidate in Phase 1 of elections was KV Reddy, with family assets of ₹895 crore.
The poorest candidate in Phase 1 of elections wasNalla Prem Kumar, a JD(U) candidate from Chevela constituency in Telengana,with declared assets of Rs.500/- only. To pick up the thread with where left Babasaheb, in the Constituent Assembly, it was an ‘angry reply’ as one contemporaneous news report put it. It is couched in such simple words, and not in legalese, it makes sense to reach out to the reader, the entirety of it. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: The House will remember that in a very early stage in the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, a Committee was appointed to deal with what are called Fundamental Rights. That Committee made a report that it should be recognised that the independence of the elections and the avoidance of any interference by the executive in the elections to the Legislature should be regarded as a fundamental right and provided for in the chapter dealing with Fundamental Rights.
When the matter came up before the House, it was the wish of the House that while there was no objection to regard this matter as of fundamental importance, it should be provided for in some other part of the Constitution and not in the Chapter dealing with Fundamental Rights. But the House affirmed without any kind of dissent that in the interests of purity and freedom of elections to the legislative bodies, it was of the utmost importance that they should be freed from any kind of interference from the executive of the day.
In pursuance of the decision of the House, the Drafting Committee removed this question from the category of Fundamental Rights and put it in a separate part containing articles 289, 290 and so on.
 Therefore, so far as the fundamental question is concerned that the election machinery should be outside the control of the executive Government, there has been no dispute. What article’289 does is to carry out that part of the decision of the Constituent Assembly. It transfers the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls and of all elections to Parliament and the Legislatures of States to a body outside the executive to be called the Election Commission. That is the provision contained in sub-clause (1). Sub-clause (2) says that there shall be a Chief Election Commissioner and such other Election Commissioners as the President may, from time to time appoint. There were two alternatives before the Drafting Committee, namely, either to have a permanent body consisting of four or five members of the Election Commission who would continue in office throughout without any break, or to permit the President to have an ad hoc body appointed at the time when there is an election on the anvil. The Committee has steered a middle course. What the Drafting Committee proposes by sub-clause (2) is to have permanently in office one man called the Chief Election Commissioner, so that the skeleton machinery would always be available. Elections no doubt will generally take place at the end of five years; but there is this question, namely that a bye-election may take place at any time.
The Assembly may be dissolved before its period of five years has expired. Consequently, the electoral rolls will have to be kept up to date all the time so that the new election may take place without any difficulty.
It was therefore felt that having regard to these exigencies, it would be sufficient if there was permanently in session one officer to be called the Chief Election Commissioner, while when the elections are coming up, the President may further add to the machinery by appointing other members to the Election Commission.
(Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)

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