EC needs to be fair & impartial
And also appear to be so
It is now manifesting increasingly clear that in
deciding on the poll schedule for various elections or bye-elections to fill
vacancies in Parliament and State assemblies, Election Commission (EC), at times,
appears to have been motivated by considerations unexplained and unconvincing sparking
doubts on its obvious fairness and impartiality.
Earlier in 2011 the EC floundered on holding
bye-elections to the three casual vacancies in the Karnataka State assembly within
the mandatory period of six months on incredible
and contradictory grounds.
This time the EC has once again been found wanting
in not holding bye-elections to the Mandi parliamentary constituency in
Himachal Pradesh simultaneously with those in parliamentary and assembly constituencies
in Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal, UP and Maharashtra on June 2, 2013.
As a matter of principle and practice, the EC had
throughout been announcing the schedule for simultaneous elections and
bye-elections to all the vacancies in Parliament or State assemblies which had
been by that time notified vacant to it.
Interestingly, on May 3, 2013 in the opening
paragraph of the EC Press Note (No. EC/PN/22/2012 only mentions the "clear vacancies in Lok
Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies" in these States and deliberately
or otherwise, hides the fact that the Mandi parliamentary seat had fallen
vacant on January 1.
It is interesting to note that while announcing
the bye-election schedule for Mandi parliamentary constituency on May 21, 2013
in its Press Note No. ECI/PN/25/2013 the EC tries to explain that it has been
able to do so "after taking into consideration various factors like
festivals, electoral rolls, weather conditions etc. " It may be worthwhile
to point out that in between the date of poll (June 2) in other States and in
Himachal Pradesh, no "festival" worth the name took place in Mandi
area to hinder holding of polling.
As far as
the "weather conditions" were concerned, there was nothing abnormal
and unusual this time. In 2004 and 2009 polling in Mandi parliamentary
constituency have been held even in the month of May. Going by this year's
experience, does it mean that the EC and HP government will not be able to hold
polling for parliamentary elections due in May 2014?
It is also
interesting to note that general elections to the State assembly of Himachal
Pradesh took place on November 4, 2012 while the election process for the State
of Gujarat commenced in December yet counting of votes in Himachal assembly
elections was ordered to be held simultaneously after about seven weeks on
December 20 in order to ensure that the results of Himachal elections did not
impact the trend of voting in Gujarat.
On this
very EC logic, in all fairness it was all the more necessary that bye-elections
for Mandi vacancy should have been held simultaneously with those in Gujarat and
in other States lest the results in these bye-elections did not in any way
affect the outcome of Mandi poll.
The only
excuse – and valid one – the Election Commission has been able to advance is
that the "electoral rolls………with reference to 01.01.2013 as the qualifying
date and (sic) have been finally published on 6.5.2013." That remains
surprising. Why did the EC and the State government fail in their constitutionally
mandatory duty to undertake revision and finally publish the same "with
reference to 01.01.2013 as the qualifying date" earlier? If 2004 and 2009
elections to Parliament could be held in early May after finally publishing the
revised electoral rolls with reference to 1st January 2004 and 1st
January 2009 earlier enabling the EC to announce the election schedule as early
as March those years, why could it not be done in May this time?
When the
electoral rolls stood finally published on 6.5.2013, EC could either have announced
the election schedule for Mandi simultaneously or just 3-4 days later because
election schedule for other States was announced only on May 3. At the most, EC
could have ordered polling to take place, if not earlier, at least on June 5,
the day of counting.
It may be by
coincidence or by design, but the fact remains that the day of polling has been
set to be June 23, the birthday of the Himachal chief Minister Virbhadra Singh
whose wife Mrs. Pratibha Singh is the Congress nominee for the constituency.
Virbhadra Singh is openly campaigning in the constituency exhorting the voters
to give him the "birthday gift" of his wife's (Congress candidate's)
victory in election on June 23.
