Promoting informed choices:

Over the years, PAC has endeavoured to stimulate informed choices in elections. The Centre has partnered with leading newspapers and resident welfare associations (RWAs) to disseminate information about candidates to voters. When PAC initiated its first experiment in 1996, no provision existed for candidates to disclose information about themselves. As a result, voters were never fully aware of these candidates’ histories, nor were any efforts made to provide such information. The situation prompted PAC to initiate an innovative exercise (the first in the country) during the 11th Lok Sabha (Parliamentary) elections in Karnataka. The objective of the campaign was to inject some transparency into the process by providing voters with details about the candidates. PAC collaborated with a leading daily newspaper, the Deccan Herald, to collect and disseminate background information about candidates belonging to major political parties. After reporters collected details from candidates regarding their educational and criminal backgrounds, as well as their plans and priorities, the data were analysed by PAC and publicised diligently by the media. For the first time, it became apparent that transparency with respect to a candidate’s history and background was possible.  

Elections to the Bangalore City Corporation (now known as the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike or BMP) held later in the year provided PAC with a chance to follow up on this experiment, this time in partnership with citizen groups and other NGOs. The effort was conceived of and designed to empower resident groups to participate actively in the electoral process. Members of resident groups interviewed candidates and collected information on a variety of personal details. This experiment, aptly named the Choose the Right Councillor programme (CRCP), was conducted in eight wards in Bangalore and information about 100 candidates was compiled, analysed and disseminated through leaflets and neighbourhood newspapers. The exercise was documented in a film entitled “Whose Vote is it Anyway?”, to provide interesting and valuable insights on the conduct of the programme and to enable groups across the country to conduct similar exercises. What emerged from this experiment was the empowerment of civic groups vis-à-vis processes of governance. With active support from PAC, these groups were able to respond to the challenges of infusing transparency and active participation in the electoral process. The unique exercise also inspired civil society organisations in other parts of the country, notably Mumbai and Chennai, to undertake similar initiatives.  

Apex court upholds voters’ right to know: 

The campaign received a fillip with a landmark Supreme Court verdict on March 13, 2003, making it mandatory for candidates to declare their criminal backgrounds, assets and liabilities, and educational qualifications at the time of filing nomination papers. The Court’s verdict itself was a result of intense civil society advocacy, under the banner of the National Campaign for Electoral Reforms (NCER), of which PAC was a member. The Election Commission of India, in its order dated March 27, 2003, instructed all Returning Officers to put in place machinery to implement the Supreme Court judgment with regard to national and state elections. The apex court’s judgment mandated that candidates must furnish details of their assets, liabilities, educational qualifications and criminal antecedents. PAC’s initial campaigns, in fact, had gone one step further, in that candidates were interviewed and a variety of resulting information was disclosed, including their sources of income, whether they paid property taxes, their priorities for the ward, whether they had criminal or corruption charges against them, etc.  

Voters’ right to information: 

In a fortuitous move, the All India State Election Commissioners’ (SEC) Conference held in July 2003 unanimously resolved to implement the disclosure rules in local body elections, thus broadening the ambit of the Supreme Court verdict. The elections in August and October 2003 to the City Municipal Councils of K.R. Puram and Mahadevapura, respectively, situated in the suburbs of Bangalore, presented the first ever opportunity in Karnataka to test the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict. PAC not only analysed the affidavits filed by candidates to assess the quality of disclosure and compliance with norms laid down by the State Election Commission, but also conducted a door-to-door campaign to disseminate the poll antecedents to voters, in partnership with a local NGO, Shree Sadguru Seva Samsthe (SSSS). 

PAC’s campaign strategy was to disseminate the information on candidates’ history to voters in a simple and reader-friendly format. After collecting photocopies of affidavits from the returning officers, information was extracted from these affidavits and entered into ward-wise leaflets prepared by the PAC team. After double-checking the formats, they were given for printing and disseminated (as far as possible) to each and every household by the local partner group, Shree Sadguru Seva Samsthe. Leaflets were prepared in English and the local language, Kannada, with the objective of stimulating informed choices among voters. The exit poll in Mahadevapura revealed that 85 percent of those who had received the PAC leaflet reported using the information to make their choice. 

Wide publicity of the irregularities observed in the K.R. Puram polls, followed by advocacy with the SEC, resulted in vast improvements during the Mahadevapura elections, which were characterised by greater compliance with disclosure laws. This meant that the Commission had responded to PAC’s proposals and had taken steps towards improving compliance. That even a small but watchful civil society group could stimulate the government to perform better was a hopeful sign. PAC’s experience has brought forth the need for concerted, vigilant and proactive action by the Central and State Election Commissions, the media and civil society organisations across the country, so as to prevent the recurrence of large-scale violations of disclosure laws as was witnessed in the K.R. Puram elections (see Annexure I, campaign No.8). 

Thanks to a small experiment in Bangalore, the Informed Choices is now recognised as a viable tool for greater electoral transparency. The initiative has been scaled up over the years - PAC has worked with civil society groups across Karnataka to painstakingly collect and disseminate information, most notably in rural areas where the benefits of disclosure laws are yet to reach the citizens. The campaign has been replicated by various groups across India, and has also received international acclaim; in 2005, the World Bank Institute showcased PAC’s electoral interventions (including the Informed Choices campaign) as one of 15 case studies on social accountability mechanisms in Asia.