'Permit Exit polls only after last phase of election'

Q&A/ N Gopalaswamy

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy tells Aasha Khosa how he ensured an incident-free election in India's largest state.

The Uttar Pradesh elections have gone off well. What are the lessons learnt from the country's longest drawn out election?

The conduct of the election in Uttar Pradesh was quite satisfactory. As one headline put it, nobody except the Election Commission believed the polls would be free and fair but we have kept our promise to do so. However, on Uttar Pradesh, we have our areas of concern. There were lots of people with voter identity cards coming to cast votes while their names were missing from the electoral rolls; we could issue photo-identity cards to only 80 per cent of the voters. Looking back, I feel, had we worked a bit harder, 10 per cent more voters might have got their voter identity cards.

The staggered schedule robs elections of their traditional charm and probably confuses the voter in making up his mind. Isn't this so?

There is a set time for election campaign in each constituency "" from the date of filing of nomination to the last day of campaign. The voter has to make up his mind within this stipulated time. His choice also depends on the effectiveness of the (election) campaign. Even with a staggered election, this does not change. However, what influences a voter's choice is the exit polls in the middle of the staggered elections. We have been demanding a ban on this. Exit polls should be permitted only after the last phase of election. The commission has given its opinion to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a public interest litigation on this. The law has to be amended for this.

Is there any link between the poor turnout in the Uttar Pradesh elections and the extraordinary arrangements for law and order?

There are some things in elections that defy logic. For example, in Lucknow, the percentage of polling last time was around 30, while this time, with our foolproof arrangements, it was only 27.7 per cent. However, I am happy to know that a lot of people voted for the first time ever only because of the heavy security arrangement. I have received many letters (shows a file containing hand-written postcards, letters etc.) sent by panchayat heads and village leaders congratulating the commission for holding free and fair polls in the state.

But your strictness has not gone down well with a section of leaders. The Samajwadi Party has openly accused the commission of a bias...

This is a free country. Anybody can say anything.

The commission's order that the BJP must condemn the objectionable contents of the anti-Muslim CD has come after the Uttar Pradesh polls. What use is it now when the polls are over?

The entire commission was busy with election because we would visit each segment personally. We had no option but to wait till the exercise was over to find time to draft the order.

What is the immediate task before the commission?

The commission is going to take up enrolment of defence services voters in a big way. In my own village in Tamil Nadu, there are only 1,100 services voters registered while the actual number should be at least five or six times more. Our officers have already started discussions with the three armed forces and enrolment will start soon. Also, during our interactions with various units in the army, we realised that servicemen did not know of the provision of proxy voting or postal ballot.

Gujarat elections are due at the end of the year. What challenges does the commission foresee there?

In India, every state has a unique election culture. For example, in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, booth-capturing has been a rampant practice and heavy security is needed to check this. However, in Punjab, though the campaigns are bitter and elections are fiercely contested, such a problem generally does not occur. Each state has its vulnerabilities. Gujarat has had a problem of (communal) polarisation but not of booth capturing. We are yet to start working on Gujarat.

The use of muscle power in elections is one aspect of the criminalisation of politics against which the Commission has made several recommendations. Do you plan to revisit these recommendations?

The Uttar Pradesh election being over, we have several issues to take up with the government. Soon, we are going to discuss with the Ministry of Law the modalities of seeing our recommendations translate into law.

We prefer introduction of a no-vote button in the electronic voting machines so that people have a choice for negative voting. Secondly, there should be a definite law to control surrogate advertisements on television and in newspapers. Another issue is the filing of affidavits (to declare property and assets) by the candidates at the time of filing his nominations. At present, this is being done because of the Supreme Court directive. A law needs to be in place for this. We are recommending that all transfer of officers be banned six months prior to the date of elections. Another focus will be on how to ban exit polls.

What about the influence of money in politics? Any move to change things on that?

That is an important aspect. Firstly, we had recommended that six months prior to the elections, the state government should not issue advertisements using public money. At present, this is mandatory only after the election is announced and the moral code of conduct comes into effect.

Another concern is the mushrooming of the political parties in India. During the last two years, the number of registered parties has gone up from 550 to 803. This increase was intriguing and we had asked the Central Board of Direct taxes to investigate this. It turned out that the reason for this rise was linked to the amendment in statute that gave exemption to the donors as well as receivers of donations of political parties. This tax benefit is leading to a mad rush for registration of political parties.

It's very easy "" some 100 people join hands to float a party and get it registered. The tax-exemption clause has created a nexus of sorts where some parties are being floated only for extraneous reasons. The commission can do nothing to check this because we have powers only to register a political party, not for withdrawing its registration. We are going to discuss this with the law ministry.