ADITI PAUL

STUDENT OF SYMBIOSIS LAW SCHOOL HYDERABAD

ABSTRACT

India prides itself as the biggest democracy in the world that ensures the representation of people in every form and manner. This is achieved through one of the most fundamental features of democracy – elections. Elections are a mechanism through which individuals can select their preferred candidate and choose them to implement laws and regulations that govern them. Elections also stand for the suffrage movement and how many people had to fight for their rights to secure the right to vote. Voting, although now accessible to every individual above the legal age, in the colonial era was restricted to high–ranking officers of the society who ensured that people experiencing poverty and commoner would have no say in the making of the government and the powers would lie in the hands of a few. Not to allow history to repeat itself, our constitution makers set forward the provision for a free and fair election regulated by an Election Commission of India (ECI), which would be unbiased and independent from the influence of political parties. However, the ECI, in recent years, has seen a change in its policy, often taking a turn for the worst when the question of fairness in elections is involved. This paper aims to explain the various articles criticizing the role of the ECI and providing suggestions on its improvement.

Keywords – Election Commission of India (ECI), electoral process, disqualification, politicization, voting