Our electoral system desperately needs improvement! To this end, civil society organizations and concerned citizens from Bangalore and around India have banded together to cleanse and rehabilitate the democratic process in this country. One such initiative began on a clear day in Bangalore at Yavanika, on December 8^th 2007, where Sri T.N. Seshan, former Chief election Commissioner, launched the major Citizen’s initiative called “Vote Bengaluru” to abolish the farcical vote-bank politics and usher in issue-based and clean elections in our country. This event spearheaded by Public Affairs Centre, Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF), Citizens’ Voluntary Initiative for the City (CIVIC), Karnataka Kolageri Nivasigala Samyuktha Sanghatane (KKNSS), and Swabhimana rose on a promising key-note address marked by wit and humor for which he is well-known, Mr. Seshan urged everyone to join hands and support Vote Bengaluru. He released the Brochure giving information on the campaign thereafter.

 

 He urged the movement to rivet and engage the youth. He maintained that there are numerous lacunae in the electoral system – he has a list of 150, which he presented to the government when he was the CEC. And the Election Commission functions and its efficiency have gone up over the years. For example one could contest in any number of constituencies earlier but now it is reduced to two. Introduction of voting machines have negated proxy vote to some extent, etc. He stressed on on-line registration/appeal for inclusion in rolls quoting the case of Tamil Nadu, which has gone a step ahead by including the photograph.

 

He strongly asserted that democracy is a costly process and that the government should not mind spending over 1,000 crore or so towards holding the elections, he said, “nothing should be barred from including in the expenses of candidates and all expenses should be borne by the government”, he also stated that Indian democracy is young and coalition politics is evolving, that it will stabilize with time as it has in most of EU countries like Germany. He made a statement that we must ponder over that voting must not be made mandatory, he said, “The centrality of democracy is the right to disagree; those who don’t want to vote, have the right to exercise their franchise.” He addressed questions and accepted suggestions from the audience and answered them all in the uproarious way that only he can.

 

Ms. Ruth Manorama, General Secretary, Women’s Voice, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award also called the Alternate Nobel Prize, spoke on the occasion. Her support was established to this initiative and she advised that the urban poor would benefit by joining hands with the partners in this citizens’ intervention. She said that women are the ones who do all the cleaning in a home and, they were best equipped to cleanse the electoral system. She urged the gathering to give equal opportunity to women.

 

Shri. Ramaseshan, IAS, Chief Electoral Officer, Election Commission of India, Karnataka, also addressed the gathering with a presentation on challenges faced by the Commission in maintaining accurate electoral rolls due to the high inter- and intra-city migration of voters. He called for an enabling partnership between the Commission and citizens and citizens' groups to cleanse the electoral roll. He said in about 4-5 years, voter IDs would be linked with geographical positioning of his residence with the help of GIS. Mr. Ramseshan next released the badges for those participating in the campaign.

 

Earlier, a brief presentation of the partner profiles was made followed by one on ‘Vote Bengaluru’. A five-pronged agenda was unveiled to achieve the objectives.

 

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.

Voters’ Charter; that defines the relationship between the elected representatives and the voters of the relevant constituency.

Voters’ Manifesto; 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. 

A dynamic interactive discussion with the audience followed. The programme concluded with a commitment session where RWAs/NGOs and citizens agreed to join VB and participate in the campaign. Communities from all over Bangalore, from varied walks of life, participated and gave their views on how citizens could make a difference to our electoral system. It is really up to YOU to persist with this endeavor for an equitable and fair future for your country. On behalf of PAC, we would like to urge all community-minded citizens to come together and make this initiative a success.