VOTE Bengaluru
Elections to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been delayed for quite sometime now due to the implementation of Greater Bangalore plans, which will expand its boundaries significantly.
In order to give an edge to citizens’ electoral campaigns during elections, Public Affairs Centre (which has been a pioneering advocate of transparency, greater citizen participation and accountability in the electoral process for more than a decade) and other reputed organizations such as CIVIC, Citizen Action Forum, Swabhimana and Karnataka Kolageri Nivasigala Samyukth Sanghatane (KKNSS) have come together to pool in their expertise and reach out to larger sections of voters. The initiative has been named “VOTE Bengaluru” and will focus on cleansing of our electoral system & processes. This is expected to be an on-going campaign till the desired level of purity in elections is achieved. The following three-pronged strategy will be adopted in order to meet the set goals –
- Cleansing of the Voters list: to ensure that voter lists are error free, with all genuine voters’ names entered therein and / or incorrect names deleted. This commences with citizen-volunteers identifying errors and working with the Election Commission to rectify the errors and keep the list constantly up-to-date.
- Voters’ Charter: that defines the relationship between the elected representative and the voters of the relevant constituency, setting out the specifics of this relationship in concrete terms and to have all candidates sign these charters. This will be prepared involving various groups from different zones.
- Voters’ Manifesto: will be evolved through a bottom-up approach, the issues of concern to the aam aadmi at each election, to organize structured public debates and discussions among candidates and political parties and involving voters in every constituency, across the States and nationally.
- Encouraging independent candidates: [where suitable party candidates are not available or where better independents are available] in order to enhance the quality of candidature and thus motivating voters who would otherwise not vote in elections.
- Motivating Voters: this involves various media campaigns to enthuse voters, sensitizing them to discharge their duty as citizens, involving them in dialogues with political parties; informing them about the profiles of the candidates, etc.
This campaign will be launched on 8th December 2007 by Shri T N Seshan, former Chief Election Commissioner, and Election Commission of India, who pioneered electoral reforms in India.
‘Vote Bengaluru’ invites more and more like minded groups to be part of this campaign to jointly work towards a more effective electoral system.