Election Commission Of India: The Silent Winner

2024 is an interesting year in terms of electoral democracy, specifically for the process of elections being held. 

More than 60 countries have elections this year to choose their government where their citizens will use the power of their vote to exercise their option to change the existing governments or bring back the same government.

More than 2 billion people, and eight of the world’s 10 most populous countries will go to vote this year to choose their government for the next term. 

This article is not about right wing or left wing or the patterns related to conservative or liberal or nationalist bent of governments. It is also not about the factors like economy or media or power of money or external interference that will or could influence most or all of these elections. 

It is also not about what is the favourite past time of journalists, about predicting electoral outcomes of these elections. 

This is about the folks who make it possible for the largest democracy in the world by size of population, and the diversity, to exercise their democratic right and the people who have come to be, by every possible standard, the gold standard of electoral mechanism on this planet. 

Election Commission of India, a constitutional authority which leverages the various part of the government to do its work but which is NOT a part of the government and retains its independence fiercely is an organisation which has made India proud in one of the few areas where India has proven to be world class and a role model to the rest of the world. 

India’s space programme led by ISRO, its vaccination programme during COVID-19 and the payment infrastructure behind the masterly UPI are some of the other areas where India’s success has set new templates of scale, efficiency, innovation and execution for rest of the world to follow. 

However, in all the other areas, the government of the day today has done a great job of talking about these programmes and proudly owning up its success on the world stage. 

Election Commission of India, being a body independent of the GoI, has silently been working behind the scenes all these years, perfecting its processes, evolving every year, adapting to the changing realities and changes, without beating their chest in public forums and media, quietly doing their jobs elections after elections, year after year, on a scale that is unimaginable for rest of the world including some of the most developed countries like the US, UK, Germany, Canada and France. 

Government does not talk much about it because it is NOT technically a part of the government, though election commissioners are appointed by GoI in consultation with opposition. 

Media does not talk about it because it is too busy discussing electoral outcomes or talk about sensational topics like allegations of EVM rigging or whether CJI should be involved in choice of election commissioner. 

What gets missed out in the process is the powerful story of those tirelessly working behind the scenes to make it possible for Indians to have the most successful and most robust democracy in the world. 

So, who are these people exactly who make the ECI (Election Commission of India) the most effective electoral management body (EMB) in the world today?

ECI is a constitutional body established by the Constitution of India whose primary role is to conduct free and fair elections in India. 

It is headed by a Chief Election Commissioner and consists of two other Election Commissioners.

ECI actually has a very thin full-time strength of about 50 officers, along with their associated subordinate staff. 

Roughly one third of these officers are drawn from the civil services, including the IAS, the IRS and other central services. The rest are drawn from the Commission's own cadre. 

Besides the above establishment at the Centre, each State has a Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) along with his staff. This officer is drawn from the State Government.

It's important to understand that these civil servants (whether at the Centre or the State), work for the ECI on a posting (deputation). Once the deputation ends, they assume other roles in the Government. But while they are at the Commission, they act in accordance with the needs of the Commission and derive their powers through it. 

And of course, once elections are declared in state or across the country, the entire govt machinery is, in a sense, at the disposal of the ECI. They draw as many officers as they require. (For instance, the District Collector becomes the District Electoral Officer).

What exactly makes ECI a world class organisation, and a gold standard in Electoral management ?

Scale — The scale at which ECI manages election is unimaginable for most countries. Consider some numbers. 

The 2024 General election will involve more than 970 million registered voters, more than 1 million polling booths, over 15 million polling staff, and 5.5 million EVMs. 

The next largest democracy by size is US which has over 161 million registered voters, one sixth of the number of voters in India. 

Independence — The defining feature of the ECI is the independence it enjoys, due to it being a constitutional body with the CEC having status of a Supreme Court judge. 

CEC can be impeached only by 2/3^rd majority of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to be present and voting for the same. 

The power of ECI is enshrined in Article 324 of the Constitution. This is part of the simple yet brilliant arrangement of separation of powers in India. The Election Commission has sole remit over when an election has to be called, as long as it does not violate the Constitutionally stipulated term. 

Once elections are declared, ECI gets the power to make transfers and postings, and to summon any officers it requires, to perform electoral duties.

All salaries come from the Consolidated Fund of India. 

ECI calls upon Home Ministry and State Governments for forces, and also for additional officers to be deployed for various functional requirements during elections. 

It has a veto over the government machinery during the election period and has the power to transfer officials in case of irregularity, and whatever it deems fit to conduct fair and free elections. 

T N Seshan, who was the CEC from 1990 to 1996 was the first CEC to utilise fully the powers endowed by the Constitution on this chair. No other CEC before him did justice to the powers of this post but Seshan’s conduct became a benchmark and every CEC after him has held up the authority and respect of this position. 

In 1993, the government made ECI a 3-member body and appointed two additional election commissioners, apparently to rein in the tough and no nonsense Seshan. 

The independence of ECI as a body and its role to ensure smooth, free and fair elections is something which has continued post Seshan as well and the commission has only become more independent and autonomous. 

Process — The most important aspect of the success of this institution is its robust process of electoral management that has unique features like randomisation of polling staff, transparency in all aspects like permissions, verifications of electoral rolls, and checking of EVMs before the polling agents. 

The process of randomisation of polling staff and the verification of EVMs before and after the polling by polling agents makes it virtually impossible for any kind of tampering or manipulation as is often alleged by some.

ECI follows a strict moral code of conduct and makes effective use of the central and state forces available to it for enforcement of the MCC, be it for illegal use of cash or muscle power to ensure violence free elections, where booth capture is a thing of past now. 

How is this different than any other election authority in the world? 

While there are many areas where ECI scores over other electoral bodies, the primary one is that of acceptability.

In India, ECI announces the poll schedules every election, the counting starts at 8 am in the morning, and the results get announced on that specific date. 

One cannot remember a single election where the results were not announced on the scheduled date, or the candidates who lost ever refused to accept the results, or the citizens or the media questioned the results of the national elections.

Contrast this with other countries which are comparable in size or population.

The top five countries by population are India, China, US, Indonesia and Pakistan.

China is a single party country and elections in Pakistan are often rigged where the results never get declared on time with unexplainable delays every election in announcement of results. 

The 2020 elections in US saw an interesting situation where it took several weeks before the results were finally accepted by all sides of Joe Biden having won over Donald Trump. A large mass of populace till today feel that 2020 elections were rigged against Trump. 

In Indonesia, in 2019 elections, Indonesia’s constitutional court rejected a lawsuit filed by the Prabowo Subianto, who for months alleged that the election was rigged against him. The violence saw eight people get killed. Free and fair elections started evolving only after 1999 after fall of President Suharto’s 32-year military rule.

In the 2019 election in Indonesia, 894 election organising officers were reported dead while 5,175 other officers had fallen sick. The triggering factors include quite heavy workload, fatigue, and comorbidity or comorbid diseases.

In Pakistan, results get delayed inexplicably every time and one cannot remember a single election where the results have been accepted by the populace in general and all parties. Allegations of rigging by military are too well known to be repeated here. 

These are just examples of counties in top five by population. The other countries in top 10 include Bangladesh, Russia, Brazil, Russia and Mexico. In most of these countries, there have been enough cases of losers not accepting results and refusing to concede while in India, one cannot recall a single time when the loser party refused to concede or step down or accept the results declared by ECI. 

Exercising The Right To Vote For Every Voter

ECI goes to considerable lengths to ensure every voter is able to exercise his right to vote. 

Here are some unique fun facts in this aspect:  

Booth at your home — ECI officers visit your home to get your vote if you are above 85 and cannot visit the polling station.  

ECI has established booth in a shipping container in a ALibet in Bharuch, Gujarat.

World’s highest polling station is in India, in Tashigang, Himachal Pradesh, is located at 15,256 feet and recorded 98 per cent voter turnout in 2022 elections.

ECI has set up a polling station for just one voter in a remote hamlet of Malogam in Arunachal Pradesh. 

The Silent Winner 

Elections in India for 2024 Lok Sabha have already started with first phase completed on 19 April. The winner will be announced on 4 June 2024. 

While we all wait for 4 June for who wins this Lok Sabha elections, if there was a trophy or contest to decide the most competent election authority in the world, ECI would win this award by any imaginable criteria.