Electoral system

The Electoral System adopted in India is borrowed from a similar one operating in Great Britain, However in India it has not been entirely left to the legislature and the Constitution it self makes detailed provisions in this regard. The constitution also empowers Parliament to legislate in respect of all matters relating to elections. In purpose of this provision, Parliament passed the following laws: -

(i)      Representation of the People Act, 1950 which deals in detail with subjects like Administrative machinery for conducting elections, the poll, by-elections. Etc.;

(ii)     Representation of the People Act, 1951 that provides for qualifications of voters preparation of electoral rolls and other concerned matters;

(iii)    Delimitation Act, 1950 which provides for delimitation and reservation of constituencies; and

(iv)    Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Act, 1952.

It is within this framework of laws that the electoral system can be described as follows:

(1)     The electoral system is based on adult suffrage, whereby every citizen of India who is not less than 18 years of age and is not otherwise disqualified under the constitution or any law made by the approved and the legislature on certain grounds has the right to be registration as voter.

(2)     It is based on geographical representation on Article 325 declares abandonment of separate elections on the basis of religion, race, caste or sex and provides for one general election roll for every territorial constituency. This has brought to an end the practice of separate or communal electorates during the British rule.

(3)     There are only single member territorial constituencies and no functional or rural constituencies. There used to be some double-member constituencies up to 1961, but an Act passed in 1961      this practice.

(4)     Each territorial constituency elects a single representative by a simple majority vote. The candidate who secures the largest number of votes is declared elected. It is not necessary for a candidate to secure an absolute majority.

Single member constituency system

Under this System, election results are determined on the basis of the relative majority of the votes polled, and the candidate who is ahead of all other candidate system by a single vote is elected, even if a majority of voters do not vote in his favour. This system is also described as the “first past the post” system.

The chief defect of this system is that only the relative majority is taken into consideration. Since most of the contests are multicornered, sometimes a candidate securing 30 to 40 per cent of votes polled in a constituency is declares elected. As a result, Bulk of electorate is not represented at all. Another serious criticism of this system is that the party that polls a minority of votes may secure a majority of seats. In this process, the minority parties get eliminated, because their political strength is dispersed. It tends to under-represent minority parties and even-represent the majority. Yet another he criticism against the system is  minority votes go unrepresented.

System of proportional representation

To remedy this defect, various methods of Proportional Representation have been suggested. Under the Proportional Representation system, the number of seats in the legislative body will be, as nearly as possible, in proportion to the votes cast for that party. Proportional Representation system is strongly  supported by minority parties, which suffer from the electoral distortions of the single-member constituency system. However, even this system is not free from weakness. Proportional Representation system extends to lead to multiplication of political parties and to creation of coalition government.

However, it may be pointed out that Proportional Representation system is very complicated and cumbersome. Moreover, it would promote sharpen and consolidate the parochial loyalties based on caste, community, religion and so on. It would also encourage further fragmentation of our political parties. It is particularly unsuited to large countries. The present system is the most acceptable form of electorate representation. It is, therefore, neither desirable nor feasible to change over to a System of proportional Representation.

The countries following the Proportional Representation system include France, Greece, Israel, Spain, Switzerland and Austria. There are various types of Proportional Representation system. These are:

1.      Single Transferable Vote or Order of Choice: The Single Transferable Vote (STV) is followed in India to for elections to the Rajya Sabha, State Legislative councils and the Offices of President and Vice President. It is followed in Australia at the federal level to the House of Representative. Under this system, each elector is allowed to mark, as many preferences as there are candidates, according to his choice, on a single ballot paper. This process involves distribution of excess votes of candidates who secure more than the quota and also elimination candidates who secure the lowest number of first preference votes and transfer of the *** or subsequent preference votes in order and crediting the candidates remaining in the field with these votes. The process is continued till the required number of candidates gets elected.

2.      List System:  The German model known as list system, is followed for elections to the Lower House. Bundestag is a mixture of direct elections to 50 per cent of the total seats from single member constituencies and of Proportional Representation on the basis of lists for the other half. Under this system, each voter has two votes, one to choose his constituency representative and the other to choose between party lists. In the direct election from single member constituencies, the candidates who poll votes (majority0 are the winners. The seats are distributed among the parties in proportion to the entire electoral area. This, however, is subject to a condition that for entitlement to any seat from the party list a party needs to obtain have won at least three seats at the constituency level.

3.      Two-ballot system: The two-ballot system followed in France for Presidency stipulates that only a candidate winning more than 50 per cent of the votes could get elected. A second round of voting is held if no candidate wins more than 50 per cent in the first round. In the second round, if necessary, only the top two candidates are allowed to contest.