Introduction:

The 17th Lok Sabha elections of India would be the biggest election in world history, with over 900 million registered voters, out of which 15 million are aged 18-19. The total electorate is more than the population of every continent.

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Magnitude of the elections:

• There will be nearly one million polling stations, up 10.1% from the 2014 elections; 2.33 million ballot units, 1.63 million control units and 1.74 million VVPATs (voter verifiable paper audit trails).
• Approximately 11 million polling staff (including security forces) will be randomized for neutrality.
• Over 120 trains with more than 3,000 coaches, and 200,000 buses and cars, besides a large variety of transport—from boats, elephants and camels to planes and helicopters—will transport the staff and materials with clockwork precision.
• Thousands of polling parties would walk 2-3 days to reach polling stations not otherwise accessible.

Various issues and challenges faced by Election commission in conducting elections of such magnitude:

• The school examinations make the month of March out of reckoning. Lakhs of schools and their teachers are involved in the polls.
• Weather conditions, agricultural cycle, festivals, (religious or social), law and order are also to be taken into consideration.
• Availability of paramilitary forces, demanded by every party, determines the number of phases since they have to be rotated because of limited numbers.
• The timing is extremely significant as the model code of conduct kicks in the moment the schedule is announced.
• The government is prohibited from announcing new schemes, new postings and transfers, and using government resources for campaigning.
• There has been ample speculation about election dates, with some even casting aspersions on the Election Commission of India’s (EC’s) neutrality in determining the dates.
• The issue of EVM hacking has led to credibility issues.

The digital challenge to ECI and conduction of elections:

• While social media has opened new doors for political parties to connect and converse with a new section of audience in the country, at the same time it has posed a new challenge for the Election Commission of India (ECI).
• Although the MCC has applied to internet platforms since 2013, no attempt has been made to enforce it thus far.
• As per IAMAI’s latest social media report – political parties have earmarked around 2%-5% of their election budgets for social media.
• The role of social media in influencing the people’s decision was seen in the Presidential elections of the USA in 2017.
• The anonymity, universality, opacity and ease of accessibility has made internet and social media a easy way to propogandize ideas, ideologies.
• Issues like appointment of dedicated grievance channel for expeditious action by the organizations, pre-certification and transparency in the expenditure of political advertisements still persist.
• The kind of monitoring tool will it be using to monitor activities on social media platforms is still a conundrum as it should not affect the right to privacy which is a fundamental right.

Way forward for challenges posed by social media:

• To curb abuse of social media platforms in the upcoming general election, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked them to frame a general code of ethics.
• The code would be similar to Model Code of Conduct laid down operational details by today evening, as per ECI statement.
• Social media firms and industry body IAMAI agreed to draft the code of ethics in the immediate context.
• Measures designed to increase transparency in campaigning, such as verification of the identities and locations of all political advertisers, and disclosure of candidates’ social media accounts and expenditure.
• The norms aimed at curbing misinformation and hate speech by candidates: pre-certification of political ads by the ECI’s Media Certification and Monitoring Committee and the creation of dedicated grievance redressal channels through which the ECI can flag and takedown problematic content quickly.
• The ECI has added social media experts to its district and state-level election Media Certification and Monitoring Committees and has launched an app called cVigil through which MCC violations, both online and offline, can be reported.
• A clear clause on users’ voluntarily agreeing not to misuse social media platforms for election should be considered.
• The ECI should bring social media into the ambit of paid news by cracking the whip on paid content circulated on social networking sites apart from restraining paid news items in print and electronic media.
• Tracking the cash flow being invested on social media by political parties to keeping a check on proxy profiles the ECI should execute it all.
• ECI must keep a track of fake profiles, objectionable content and monitoring.

Conclusion:

The ECI acknowledges social media as a big challenge and has started taking measures to ensure free and fair elections. A collaborative approach with all stakeholders will ensure that the social media challenge can be minimalized.