40.1 Why ALL electoral reforms are useless
without Right to Recall MPs, MLAs
40.2 Central\State Govt Gazette
Notification draft for RTR MP
40.3 Amendment to People’s Representation
Act to enact RTR MP
40.5 Central\State Govt Gazette
Notification draft for Right to Recall MLA
40.6 State Govt Gazette Notification draft
for Right to Recall Corporator
40.7 State Govt Gazette Notification draft
for Right to Recall Gram Sarpanch
40.8 Direct elections of PM, CM, Mayor,
Sarpanch
40.9 Banning EVMs and using paper ballots
with some changes
40.10 Conducting polling on one day
40.11 Simplifying form filling and
contesting election
40.12 Raising election deposits
40.13 Increasing number of citizen-voters
who second a candidate
40.14 Restricting number of candidates
40.15 Eliminate Optional Withdrawal of
candidates
40.17 Election and Proportionate
Representation in Rajyasabha
40.19 Reducing election expenses
40.20 What can YOU do to bring electoral
reforms in India
Electoral reforms I
propose
1.
Why all electoral reforms without Right to Recall MP,
MLA are useless
2.
Right to Recall MP draft via Gazette Notification
3.
Right to Recall MP draft via Amendment in People’s
Representation Act
4.
Explanations on RTR-MP
5.
Right to Recall MLA draft
6.
Right to Recall Corporator
draft
7.
Right to Recall Sarpanch
draft
8.
Direct elections of CM, PM, Sarpanch,
Mayor
9.
Banning EVMs, back to paper ballots
10.Conducting polls on
one day
11.Simplifying election
form filling
12.Raising election
deposits for wealthy candidates
13.Increasing number of
citizen-voters who propose a candidate on form
14.Restricting number of
candidates
15.Install Recall Voting
(IRV) aka Preferential Voting
16.Eliminate optional
withdrawal of candidates
17.Election and
Proportionate Representation in Rajyasabha
18.Inner Party Democracy
19.Campaign finance
changes, and reducing culture of giving gifts to voters
And many others. Details will be placed at http://rahulmehta.com
later
We talk about electoral reforms, so that “chances” of getting bad
person elected reduce and chances of getting good person getting elected
increases. But unless we have Right to Recall, the chances that next elected
candidate will become corrupt will remain extremely high. So most urgent and
important task is RTR MLAs, RTR MPs etc.. But then
question is : existing MPs will never enact RTR laws
as it goes against their financial interests. Then shall we wait till next
election and replace MPs? Well, that will hurt us for next five years and will
only benefit existing MPs – they can take bribes without worry for next five
years. And the possibility of next batch of MPs selling out remains high. So
solution is to raise a mass movement asking citizens to force existing PM, CMs
to print TCP. Once PM and CMs have been forced to print TCP, citizens can
enact RTR over PM, CMs, Supreme Court judges etc. within a few months. These
points have been outlined in previous chapters of this book.
The key parts are clause-2, clause-3 and clause-6
# |
Officer |
Procedure /
instruction |
1 |
----- |
(1.1) The word citizen would mean a registered
voter. (1.2) The word “may” does not imply any moral-legal binding. It
clearly means “may” or “need not”. |
2 |
District Collector (DC) |
PM orders DC, that if a citizen of India comes to DC and wishes
to be candidate in coming MP election, then DC shall accept a fee equal to
deposit of MP election and register that person as a candidate-in-waiting for
MP election. DC will issue serial number and post his name on the website of
PM. |
3 |
Talati , Patwari (or his clerks) |
(3.1) PM orders Patwari (or Talati or Village
officer) that if a citizen comes in person to Patwari’s
office, pays Rs 3 fee, and approves at most five
persons for MP position, the Patwari would enter
his approvals in the computer and would give receipt showing his voter-id#,
date/time and the persons he approved. (3.2) If Patwari does not have PC etc., then DC shall put this
operation in office of Tahsildaar till the Talati gets PC etc. to put this system. (3.3) PM or DC may
create a system which gives SMS feedback to the citizen similar to credit
card transaction (3.4) PM’s secretary
will provide the necessary software to Patwari and
DC will provide the necessary hardware to Patwari. (3.5) DC may provide
equipment to the Patwari which would capture the
photo and finger print of the citizen, and can give receipt with the
citizen’s finger print and photo. (3.6) DC may create
a system where in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type
kiosks, SMS and internet. (3.7) PM may create
a system where in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type
kiosks, SMS and internet. |
4 |
Talati, Patwari |
The Talati will put the approvals of
the citizens on PM’s website with citizen’s voter-ID number and names of the
persons he approved. |
5 |
Talati, Patwari |
If the voter comes to cancel his Approvals, the Talati will cancel one of more of his approvals without
any fee. |
6 |
MP |
If an alternate candidate gets approval which are (6.1) 10% (of all voters) more than votes of the sitting MP OR (6.2) over 50% of ALL voters in that constituency and are also more than approvals obtained by the sitting MP,
then the sitting MP may or need not resign in 14 days. |
7 |
Speaker of Loksabha |
If the sitting MP does not resign in 14 days, then the Speaker
may or need not call a motion in the Parliament to expel that MP. The
decision of the Speaker shall be final. |
8 |
MPs |
The MPs may or need not approve the motion to expel that MP |
9 |
Election Commission |
If the MP resigns or is expelled, EC may conduct new election as
per the norms. In the next election, the expelled MP may contest. |
10 |
---- |
For the purpose of clause-6, the approvals of the voters who
registered before the election will not count. The number of voters will mean
number of voters on the day of election. The exact numbers of each
Constituency will be published by EC and decision of EC will be final. |
11 |
---- |
The PM may change the thresholds in clause-6 of this Gazette
Notification. The threshold will be same for entire country. |
12 |
---- |
At the time of election, the candidate may or may not submit an
affidavit to Election Officer stating whether he supports this Right to
Recall MP Gazette Notification or not. |
If the above draft is printed as Gazette Notification
issued by Cabinet, then clause-7 and clause-8 are needed to remove the MP,
because MP can be expelled by Parliament and Speaker, and the decision of
Parliament and Speaker cannot be reviewed by any Court. So if MPs expel that MP
for whatever reason, High Court or Supreme Court cannot reverse the expulsion.
Thus using existing law-draft and above Gazette Notification draft, a weak form
of RTR-MP can be brought.
# |
Officer |
Procedure /
instruction |
1 |
- |
(1.1) The word citizen would mean a registered
voter. (1.2) The word “may” does not imply any moral-legal binding. It
clearly means “may” or “need not”. |
2 |
District Collector (DC) |
If a citizen of India comes to DC and wishes to be candidate in
coming MP election, then DC shall accept a fee equal to deposit of MP
election and register that person as a candidate-in-waiting for MP election.
DC will issue a serial number and post his name on the website of PM. |
3 |
Talati , Patwari (or his clerks) |
(3.1) If a citizen
comes in person to Patwari’s office, pays Rs 3 fee , and approves at most
five persons for MP position, the Patwari would
enter his approvals in the computer and would give receipt showing his voter-id#, date/time
and the persons he approved. (3.2) If Patwari does not have PC etc., then DC shall put this
operation in office of Tahsildaar till the Talati gets PC etc. to put this system. (3.3) PM or DC may
create a system which gives SMS feedback to the citizen similar to credit
card transaction (3.4) PM’s secretary
will provide the necessary software to Patwari and
DC will provide the necessary hardware to Patwari. (3.5) DC may provide
equipment to the Patwari which would capture the
photo and finger print of the citizen, and can give receipt with the
citizen’s finger print and photo. (3.6) DC may create
a system where in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type
kiosks, SMS and internet. (3.7) EC may create
a system where in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type
kiosks, SMS and internet. |
4 |
Talati, Patwari |
The Talati will put the approvals of
the citizens on PM’s website with citizen’s voter-ID number and names of the
persons he approved. |
5 |
Talati, Patwari |
If the voter comes to cancel his Approvals, the Talati will cancel one of more of his approvals without
any fee. |
6 |
Election Commission |
If an alternate candidate gets approval which are (6.1) 10% (of all voters) more than votes of the sitting MP OR (6.2) over 50% of ALL voters in that constituency and are also more than approvals obtained by the sitting MP,
then the Election Commission shall order a Recall-cum-Replacement Poll in
that Constituency |
7 |
Election Commission |
In the Recall-cum-Replacement Poll, the sitting MP’s name will
be first on the ballot and he need not file a nomination form. The 14 persons
with highest approval counts, and having over 5% of all voters will also be
in the ballot. The ballot cannot have any other names in this
Recall-cum-Replacement Poll. |
8 |
Election Commission |
If a candidate gets 10% (of all voters) votes more than sitting
MP got in the past election, then EC would declare that candidate as the new
MP and relieve existing MP from his service. |
9 |
Election Commission |
For the purpose of this section, the approvals of the voters who
registered before the election will not count. The number of voters will mean
number of voters on the day of election. The exact numbers of each
Constituency will be published by EC and decision of EC will be final. |
10 |
All Candidates |
At the time of election, candidate may or may not submit an
affidavit to Election Officer stating whether he supports this Right to
Recall MP clauses. |
IMO, the non-80G-activists
should ask MPs to add the above clauses the People’s Representation Act. The draft given in previous
section has plus point that non-80G-activists can ask the Cabinet Ministers (PM
or CM) to print that in next month’s Gazette Notification and process can start
right away without approval of MPs.
To start with, I would
request non-80G-activists to ask PM to print the draft given in this
section-40.2 in the Gazette and ask MPs to present that draft as Legislation in
the Parliament..
a. Say a constituency has 1500,000 voters.
Say 800,000 voted. Say winning candidate got 360,000. Now if alternate
candidate gets approvals which are (10% of all voters) i.e. (10% of 1500,000)
i.e. 150,000 more than votes candidate got, i.e. 510,000 approvals,
then there will be recall poll. And in recall poll, if winner gets below
510,000 votes, the sitting MP shall continue. And if winner gets over 510,000
votes, then next person will become MP.
b. Say a constituency has 1500,000 voters.
Say 900,000 voted. Say winning candidate got 800,000. Now if alternate
candidate gets approvals which are (50% of all voters) i.e. (50% of 750,000)
and approval of sitting MP now are below 750,000, then there will
be recall poll. And in recall poll, if winner gets below 750,000 votes, the
sitting MP shall continue.
°
Approval buying is not viable : The citizens can cancel approval any
day. So if some tries to pay Rs 100 to 510,000 voters
and get approvals, then citizens may approve him, and cancel his approvals next
day. Also, such approval buying can trigger filing of approvals in favor of
some other candidate as well.
°
Threatening voters is not viable : No one can threaten lakhs of voters on
daily basis.
°
Approval filing is safer that bank transaction :
Not just the person walks to Talati’s office
to file approval, he gets SMS feedback similar to credit card usage and the
equipment will take his pix and finger print. Of course, on day-one, these features wont be available, but any Collector can implement them in 3 to 6 months or else
citizens should demand his expulsion. With picture, finger print and SMS
feedback, the system is safer than bank transaction. If someone can hack this
system, he will rather hack a backing system. And when system comes on ATM or
SMS, it is equally safe.
A typical MP constituency
has 15 lakh voters. So even if all 15 lakh voters were to file for approvals at
Talati’s office, the cost will be about Rs 45 lakhs. When Collector or PM or EC implement the
system by which approvals can be taken on ATM or SMS, the cost per citizen per
approval filing decreases to few paise. So even if
all 15 lakh citizen-voters were to file approvals, the costs would be below a
few lakh rupees. The cost of recall election is same as cost of election ---
about Rs 15 per voter as disclosed by EC.
NO. Say a constituency has 1500,000 voters. Say an alternate
candidate has approval of several lakhs of citizens, much more than sitting MP.
Now if sitting MP, Speaker of Loksabha and other MPs
chose to ignore the citizens, each of whom knows that lakhs of citizens are
with him, the fire-works that would result will ensure that no political worker
affiliated with that MP can survive. All in all, the sitting MP will resign and
if not, to save the fire-works, other MPs will expel him. Further, when the
draft is passed as Legislation as amendment (addition) to PRA, the word may can
removed and replaced by “shall”.
US created RTR Police Chief procedure in 1750 and used
signature based method (as opposed to my proposed method, which needs
appearance of citizen, not his signature). That’s because back then, population
of each county was in few thousands, County Offices had signature of all
citizens, voter registration needed signature and Govt
offices used to be sparse. Further, Jury System ensured low corruption, and so
RTR was less needed. But today in India, signature based procedure will be a
disaster. A signature based procedure is a tool that psuedo-recallists
use to ensure a “no right to recall” procedure. Today, some 50% adults do NOT
know how to sign!! Collector does NOT have signature specimen of even 5%
citizens and they are poorly tabulated. In case of banks, the signature method
works because banks take signature at the time of opening account and cheque-book is given by the bank. So the cheque-paper itself ensures good faith and in addition,
signature is compared. But given that Collector doesn’t give any “recall cheque book” nor has signature specimen, such procedure
will be useless. The psuedo-recallist like The Anna
deliberately propose signature based system so that they can give bad name to
Right to Recall. And MNC-paid TV-channels are support then so that
non-80G-activists get attracted by such psuedo-recallists
and waste away time after unviable signature based procedure.
In the procedure I proposed, the citizen has to appear
in person at Talati’s office and his finger print
will be taken, and he gets SMS feedback for his approvals. So if someone fakes
say 50-100 approvals, then when 50-100 people get SMS, surely some would take
actions and using finger prints, the person can be tracked back. And later,
with ATM and SMS sending, procedure becomes cheap, easier to use and is still
equally secure. After all, people buy shares on mobile phones. So if mobile
phones were insecure, this would not be happening.
Positive Recall is when citizens have to agree and
prove an alternative before removal of sitting person, and negative recall is
when citizen have option of simply removing without proving agreement on the
replacement. The positive recall reduces possibility of chaos that vacuum can
create and makes recall easier, because in negative recall, citizens may
postpone o avoid recall due to fear that next
replacement may be worse. Positive recall also rules out possibility that a
person will be expelled for not doing something that no one can do, because
citizens will see that no replacement can do that either. So the procedure I have proposed for Right to
Recall MP used positive recall concept rather than negative recall concept.
Many activists have to post the draft on internet forums. To make
their life easy, I am putting the above draft which is given in tabular format
in plain text format.
FIRST DRAFT (which can be issued as Gazette Notification by PM)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. (1.1) The word citizen would mean a registered voter.
(1.2) The word “may” does not imply any moral-legal
binding. It means “may” or “need not”.
2. [Instruction for
District Collector aka DC] PM orders DC, that if a citizen of India comes to DC
and wishes to be candidate in coming MP election, then DC shall accept a fee
equal to deposit of MP election and register that person as a
candidate-in-waiting for MP election. DC will issue a serial number and post
his name on the website of PM.
3. [Instruction to Talati , Patwari(or his
clerks)] (3.1) PM orders Patwari (or Talati or Village officer) that if a citizen comes in
person to Patwari’s office, pays Rs
3 fee , and approves at most five persons for MP position, the Patwari would enter his approvals in the computer and would
give receipt showing his voter-id#,
date/time and the persons he approved.
(3.2) If Patwari does not have PC etc., then DC shall put this
operation in office of Tahsildaar till the Talati gets PC etc. to put this system.
(3.3) DC may create a
system which gives SMS feedback to the citizen similar to credit card
transaction
(3.4) DC may provide
equipment to the Patwari which would capture the
photo and finger print of the citizen, and can give receipt with the citizen’s
finger print and photo.
(3.5) PM’s secretary
will provide the necessary software to Patwari and DC
will provide the necessary hardware to Patwari.
(3.6) DC may create a
system where in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type Kiosks,
SMS and internet.
(3.7) PM may create a
system where in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type Kiosks,
SMS and internet.
4. [Instruction to Talati, Patwari] The Talati will put the approvals of the citizens on PM’s
website with citizen’s voter-ID number and names of the persons he approved.
5. [Instruction Talati, Patwari] If the voter
comes to cancel his Approvals, the Talati will cancel
one of more of his approvals without any fee.
6. [Instruction to MP] If
an alternate candidate gets approval which are
(6.1) 10% (of all voters) more than votes of the sitting MP OR
(6.2) over 50% of ALL voters in that
constituency and are also more than approvals obtained by the sitting MP, then
the sitting MP may or need not resign in 7 days.
7. [Instruction to
Speaker of Loksabha] If the sitting MP does not
resign in 7 days, then the Speaker may or need not call a motion in the
Parliament to expel that MP.. The decision of the
Speaker shall be final.
8. [Instruction to MP] The MPs may or need not approve the motion
to expel that MP’
9. [Instruction to
Election Commission] If the MP resigns or is expelled, EC may conduct new
election as per the norms. In the next election, the expelled MP may contest.
10. For the purpose of
clause-6, the approvals of the voters who registered after the election will
not count. The number of voters will mean number of voters on the day of
election. The exact numbers of each Constituency will be published by EC and
decision of EC will be final.
11. The PM may change
the thresholds in clause-6 of this Gazette Notification. The threshold will be
same for entire country.
12. At the time of
election, the candidate may or may not submit an affidavit to Election Officer
stating whether he supports this Right to Recall MP Gazette Notification or
not.
------ end of first
RTR-MP draft in plain text -----------
SECOND DRAFT
(amendment to People’s Representation Act)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. (1.1) The word citizen would mean a registered voter.
(1.2) The word “may”
does not imply any moral-legal binding. It clearly means “may” or “need not”.
2.. (instruction for DC i.e. District Collector) If a citizen of
India comes to DC and wishes to be candidate in coming MP election, then DC
shall accept a fee equal to deposit of MP election and register that person as
a candidate-in-waiting for MP election. DC will issue a serial number and post
his name on the website of PM.
3. (instruction for Talati, Patwari or his clerks)
(3.1) If a citizen comes in person to Patwari’s
office, pays Rs 3 fee , and
approves at most five persons for MP position, the Patwari
would enter his approvals in the computer and would give receipt showing his voter-id#, date/time and
the persons he approved.
(3.2) If Patwari does not have PC etc.,
then DC shall put this operation in office of Tahsildaar
till the Talati gets PC etc. to put this system.
(3.3) PM or DC may create a system which gives SMS feedback to the
citizen similar to credit card transaction
(3.4) PM’s secretary will provide the necessary software to Patwari and DC will provide the necessary hardware to Patwari.
(3.5) DC will provide equipment to the Patwari
which would capture the photo and finger print of the citizen, and can give
receipt with the citizen’s finger print and photo. (3.6) DC will create a
system where in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type kiosks,
SMS and internet.(3.7) EC will create a system where
in citizen can submit/change his approvals over ATM type kiosks, SMS and
internet.
4. (instruction for Talati, Patwari) The Talati will put the
approvals of the citizens on PM’s website with citizen’s voter-ID number and
names of the persons he approved.
5. (instruction for Talati, Patwari) If the voter comes to cancel his Approvals, the Talati will cancel one of more of his approvals without any
fee.
6. (instruction for Election Commission) If an alternate candidate
gets approval which are
(6.1) 10% (of all voters) more than votes of the sitting MP OR
(6.2) over 50% of ALL voters in that constituency and
are also more than approvals obtained by the sitting MP, then the Election Commission
shall order a Recall-cum-Replacement Poll in that Constituency
7. (instruction for Election Commission) In the
Recall-cum-Replacement Poll, the sitting MP’s name will be first on the ballot
and he need not file a nomination form. The 14 persons with highest approval
counts, and having over 5% of all voters will also be in the ballot. The ballot
cannot have any other names in this Recall-cum-Replacement Poll.
8. (instruction for Election Commission) If a candidate gets 10%
(of all voters) votes more than sitting MP got in the past election, then EC
would declare that candidate as the new MP and relieve existing MP from his
service.
9. (instruction for Election Commission) For the purpose of this
section, the approvals of the voters who registered before the election will
not count. The number of voters will mean number of voters on the day of
election. The exact numbers of each Constituency will be published by EC and
decision of EC will be final.
10. (instruction for All Candidates) At the time of election,
candidate may or may not submit an affidavit to Election Officer stating
whether he supports this Right to Recall MP clauses.
------ end of second
RTR-MP draft in plain text -----------
The reader is requested to first read the “Right to
Recall MP” draft and its explanation, because to save repetition
, many commons things are not stated here. The Right to Recall MP draft
is give in section-40.2 of http://rahulmehta.com/301.pdf OR http://scribd.com/doc/62297073/301
# |
Officer |
Procedure /
instruction |
1 |
----- |
(1.1) The word citizen would mean a registered
voter. (1.2) The word “may” does not imply any moral-legal binding. It
clearly means “may” or “need not”. |
2 |
District Collector (DC) |
PM orders DC, that if a citizen of India comes to DC and wishes
to be candidate in coming MLA election, then DC shall accept a fee equal to
deposit of MLA election and register that person as a candidate-in-waiting
for MLA election. DC will issue a serial number and post his name on the
website of PM. |
3 |
Talati , Patwari (or his clerks) |
(3.1) PM orders Patwari (or Talati or Village
officer) that if a citizen comes in person to Patwari’s
office, pays Rs 3 fee ,
and approves at most five persons for MP position, the Patwari
would enter his approvals in the computer and would give receipt showing his voter-id#, date/time
and the persons he approved. (3.2) If Patwari does not have PC etc., then DC shall put this
operation in office of Tahsildaar till the Talati gets PC etc. to put this system. (3.3) DC may create
a system which gives SMS feedback to the citizen. (3.4) PM’s secretary
will provide the necessary software to Patwari and
DC will provide the necessary hardware to Patwari. |
4 |
Talati, Patwari |
The Talati will put the approvals of
the voters on website of PM with citizen’s voter-ID number and names of the
persons he approved. |
5 |
Talati, Patwari |
If a the voter comes to cancel his
Approvals, the Talati will cancel one of more of
his approvals without any fee. |
6 |
MLA |
If an alternate candidate gets approval of over 50% of ALL voters in
that constituency and it is also 1% higher that approvals obtained by
existing sitting MLA, then the MLA may or need not resign in 7 days. |
7 |
Speaker of Assembly |
If an alternate MLA in any MLA constituency gets approvals of
over 50% of ALL
voters and is 1% more than approvals obtained by existing MLA,
and that MLA refuses to resign in 7 days, then the Speaker may or need not
call a motion to expel that MLA in the Assembly. The decision of the Speaker
will be final. |
8 |
MLAs |
The MLAs may or need not approve the motion to expel that MLA |
9 |
Election Commission |
If MLA resigns, EC will conduct new election as per the norms. |
# |
Officer |
Procedure /
instruction |
1 |
----- |
The word citizen would mean a registered voter |
2 |
Tahsildaar (Mamlatdaar) |
Tahsildaar will accept a fee
equal to deposit of Corporator and let a person
register as alternate candidate for Corporator. The
person must eligible to become Corporator on the
date of filing his nomination. |
3 |
Talati , Patwari (or his clerks) |
If a citizen comes in person to Talati’s
office, pays Rs 3 fee ,
and approves at most five persons for Corporator
position, the Talati would enter his approvals in
the computer and would him a receipt with his voter-id#, date/time and the
persons he approved. |
4 |
Talati, Patwari |
The Talati will put the approvals of
the voters on website of CM with citizen’s voter-ID number and names of the
persons he approved. |
5 |
Talati, Patwari |
If a the voter comes to cancel his
Approvals, the Talati will cancel one of more of
his approvals without any fee. |
6 |
Corporator |
If an alternate candidate gets approval of over 50% of ALL voters in
that constituency and it is also 1% higher that approvals obtained by
existing sitting Corporator, then the Corporator may or need not resign in 7 days. |
7 |
Corporators |
If an alternate Corporator in any Corporator constituency gets approvals of over 50% of ALL voters and is
1% more than approvals obtained by existing Corporator,
and that Corporator refuses to resign in 7 days,
then the Corporators of that city may or may not
pass a resolution to expel him. The decision of Corporators
will be final. |
8 |
SEC (State Election Commission) |
If Corporators resigns, State Election
Commission will conduct new election as per the norms. |
# |
Officer |
Procedure /
instruction |
1 |
----- |
The word citizen would mean a registered voter |
2 |
Tahsildaar (Mamlatdaar) |
Tahsildaar will accept a fee
equal to deposit of Gram Sarpanch and let a person
register as alternate candidate for Gram Sarpanch. |
3 |
Talati , Patwari (or his clerks) |
If a citizen comes in person to Talati’s
office, pays Rs 3 fee ,
and approves at most five persons for Sarpanch
position, the Talati would enter his approvals in
the computer and would him a receipt with his voter-id#, date/time and the
persons he approved. |
4 |
Talati, Patwari |
The Talati will put the approvals of
the voters on website of PM with citizen’s voter-ID number and names of the
persons he approved. |
5 |
Talati, Patwari |
If a the voter comes to cancel his
Approvals, the Talati will cancel one of more of
his approvals without any fee. |
6 |
Sarpanch |
If an alternate candidate gets approval of over 50% of ALL voters in
that constituency and it is also 1% higher that approvals obtained by
existing sitting Sarpanch, then the Sarpanch may or need not resign in 7 days. |
7 |
State Election Commission |
If Sarpanch resigns, SEC will conduct
new election as per the norms. |
One common problem you will see in India is that a
voter will say “Independent candidate Mr. X is good, but I want Mr. A to be CM
and so I will vote for Party of Mr. A”. E.g. in Gujarat, many hated local BJP
MLA candidate but they voted for BJP as they wanted Modi to be CM. And in
Madhya Pradesh, many voters did not like the local BJP MLA candidate yet voted
for BJP as they wanted Shivraj Chauhan to become CM.
This becomes a hurdle in the way of citizens to promote better candidates in
MLA election, because they are tied with “who should become CM”. So if election
of CM and MLA is separated i.e. separate elections decide CM and separate election
decide MLA, then voters will have more choice and will be able vote for a
candidate they like for MLA election, without fearing that it can worsen the
choice of MLA. So citizens should directly elect CM and directly elect PM. Will
this make PM, CM absolute? No. Using Right to Recall PM and Right to Recall CM,
we citizens can ensure that he will behave properly. And as of now, only MLA
and MP can expel CM, PM and all they do is threaten CM, PM and collect bribes.
So procedure that MLA< MP can expel CM, PM does not help citizens at all –
it only enriches MLAs, MPs.
My proposal is – using TCP, we citizens should enact an Gazette Notification by which we citizens can directly
elect PM, CM. And for that matter, the proposed procedures Right to Recall PM,
CM have means by which citizens can put CM, PM of their choice.
Please see a video demonstration that shows that rigging EVMs in
untraceable way is easier that paper ballots at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlCOj1dElDY
. In addition, I have written a way on how lakhs of EVMs can be rigged inside
factory at http://rahulmehta.com/evm1.pdf
Can EVMs be rigged? Yes, and worse – unlike paper
ballots, 10000s of EVMs can be rigged with just few people inside the
factory. And some ways of rigging ensure that rigging will never become visible
to citizens at large. In case of paper ballots, one can rig hardly 0.1% of
total votes and that too would need 1000s of criminals. With EVMs, one with
10-15 people at top and by playing a small trick in the Collectors’ offices,
one can steal as many as 10% to 20% of the total polled votes. There is another
method, which needs about 100 persons in the factory and using them one can
steal about 10% of all polled votes across Constituencies. This is the main
reason why Germany banned EVMs and Japan, Ireland scrapped EVM projects. And
many states in US also banned EVMs.
In case of paper ballots, people complain of so called
booth capture. Well, EVM doesn’t stop booth capture either. That is strictly a police problems. EVM only creates 20 second delay between
two successive votes and nothing else. This 20 second delay can be achieved
with paper ballot as well by having a device that puts a stamp with a 15 digit serial number on the backside of the ballot paper,
and device will put only one stamp every 20 seconds. This will ensure a delay of 20 seconds between
two votes. Now ballot paper is as safe as EVM and the problem of industrial
scale rigging doesn’t come at all. In addition, at all sensitive booth, EC can
put a Rs 1000 to Rs 2000
camera which can take pictures every 30 seconds and send the pictures to
control station via mobile phone link. All in all, booth capturing happens
because judges/policemen have been encouraging criminals, who become so strong
and bold that they hack booths. Solution is to enact procedures by which
citizens can expel/replace District Police Chiefs and judges so that criminals
don’t go so strong. Once criminals weaken the problem of booth capturing
reduce.
Also, if election is deposit is raised (see one of the
next topics), then number of spurious candidates will reduce. So number of
candidates will become 5-10, and the will become of the size of no bigger than
two post cards. In such cases, counting will be over in one day.
Once we have recallable District Police Chiefs and
recallable judges, the crime problem will reduce and it would become possible
to conduct elections with just 1 policemen equipped with camera per booth, and
a mobile petrol of 10 policemen in an area covering 10 booths. So to conduct
polls in 800,000 booths, about 16,00,000 policemen will be enough. We have
25,00,000 policemen in India (CRPF and all police forces included, Army
soldiers and BSF excluded). And election or no election, we need to recruit
50,00,000 more policemen in India. So it is possible to conduct polling in
entire country in just one day, and have counting 3 days after polling
day.
So all in all, my proposals at RRP on EVM and poll
conducting issues are
1.
Ban EVMs using TCP. Legalize the use paper ballots
only.
2.
Enact Right to Recall over Police Chief, judges using
TCP
3.
Recruit 30,00,000 policemen all over India
4.
Equip all policemen with camera
5.
Provide camera in all sensitive booths
6.
Using TCP, raise the election deposits
7.
Using TCP, raise number of citizens who need to
propose the candidate
In 1951, the entire election was conducted on one day. IIRC,
elections were held on one day only till around 1984. It was only after 1984,
then ECI had to move the polls across days. The polling can be done on one day
with following reforms
1.
Make election deposit equal to two per capita annual GDPs : This will
ensure that number of candidates are below 10-12 and elections become
manageable.
2.
Improve law-order : lesser
the criminals, less the police staff needed
3.
Give camera to policemen in the booth.
4.
Using stamping device that puts stamp once every 20
seconds only, so that booth capturers cannot cast 100s of votes within minutes
Once the problem of booth capturing reduces, it would
become possible to conduct polling on one day only.
Lesser the time and headache form filling takes, more
the honest people will join politics. If form filling etc. takes hours and
hours, then chances that honest person will quit because of income he is losing
will only increase.
As of now, form filling has become a mess. Every
election, we see good candidates getting rejected because of petty mistakes.
Following are my proposals to reduce technical headaches in filling forms
1.
A citizen can declare himself as candidate for a seat
any day, not necessarily when election is announced. He can announce himself as
candidate of at most 2 Loksabha Constituencies.
2.
He shall pay the deposit on the day he announces
himself as candidate.
3.
He need to be citizen of India and show any proof of
being citizen of India to the Collector. His name may or may not be in the
voter list.
4.
No one will need to second his name at the time of
form filling
5.
Any citizen can walk to Patwari’s
(Talati’s) office and second a candidate for his
Constituency for a fee of Rs 3/- fee. A citizen can
cancel his seconding any day without fee. A citizen can second at most 3
candidates. He can second any candidate again for Rs
3/- fee.
6.
The Collector will accept/reject his application in 7
days
7.
The Collector will examine the application after 1000
citizen-voters have seconded his name and the count remains above 1000 for 14
days in a row.
8.
If application is rejected, he can file his
application again. The list of citizens who have seconded him will remain
intact.
9.
The last date of filling form will be 30 days before
election starts.
10.He will need to
disclose his income/wealth statements (as today)
11.Political parties will
not get tax benefits. Donors to political parties will not get tax benefits
12.Individuals may donate
to political parties, but companies will not be allowed to donate to political parties
13.The campaign expenses
cannot be deducted as business expense
14.The candidates will
need to give list of expenses they made only after the poll ends and before 30
days after the poll ends. They will not need to file the expenses during the
polls.
The raising number of citizens who need to second a
candidate to 1000 will reduce the number of spurious candidates. So my proposal
wrt election form filling is to get a law-draft
containing above 10-12 points enacted using TCP.
Say per capita GDP of India is Rs
X. Then Loksabha election deposits I propose is :
1.
Minimum deposit will be will be whatever EC decides,
say Rs M. As on may-2009, it was Rs
10000
2.
if average annual gross income, before exemptions, of
the candidate in past three income returns is Rs I or
his wealth is Rs W, then the deposit will be higher
of (income/5 and
wealth/50). W will include circle rate of his plots and constructions.
3.
The highest deposit will be 5X i.e. 5 times per capita
GDP
4.
If the person has lied while disclosing income or
wealth, the Jurors can impose a fine of 50 times the difference
5.
If the person has agreed to pay deposit of 5X, i.e.5
times per capita GDP, he will not be accused of filing lesser deposit
6.
The per capita GDP will be as disclosed by RBI to
Election Commission. EC can round it to the nearest thousand rupees. EC’s
decision will be final.
So consider may-2009 election. The per capita income
was about Rs 45,000. Then if person’s annual income
and wealth is below Rs 50000 a year and wealth is
below Rs 500,000, then deposit will be Rs 10000. But say his income is say Rs
400,000 per year and wealth is Rs 50,00,000 then
deposit will be max(Rs
400,000/5 , Rs 50,00,000/50) = max(80000, 100000) = Rs 100,000. And highest deposit payable will be Rs 225,000
So my proposal is to get above election deposit
related law-draft passed using TCP.
As of now, in LS election, one needs 10 citizen-voters
to second a candidate’s name. Thus number should be increased to 2000, but the
procedure to second the candidate must be changed. Instead of candidate
collecting signatures on a form, the citizen who wants to second should be
asked to visit Patwari’s office, and Patwari should enter his name in the PC along with his
picture in the web-cam camera attached to the Patwari’s
PC. The seconding happen
any day. And the citizen can cancel his seconding any day. If a candidate’s
count exceeds 2000 and stays above 2000 for 30 days in a row, he will be qualified
for LS elections for next 6 years. If he fails to meet this requirement, his
deposit will be forfeited.
Using TCP, I propose to enact following law-draft : If there are more than 8 candidates, then
there will a pre-election, 30 days before main election, where the 4
parties (or candidate, if he was independent) which got highest votes in the
previous election need not contest and only the rest will be on the
pre-election ballot paper. This pre-election ballot paper will have single
vote. The 4 candidates which get highest votes in this pre-election will
qualify for main election. The deposit for pre-election will be same as deposit
for election. And the 4 persons who won pre-election will not need to pay
deposit for the main election
How pre-election will reduce number of spurious candidates
Many spurious
candidates contest election to cut votes of one or more serious candidates. The
pre-election reduces their ability to cut the votes of the serious candidates.
A candidate who is filling form can tag his election filing with
zero or more candidates. If he has tagged, then he can contest only if all the
candidates in the list got disqualified. If anyone is qualified, then his form
will be considered withdrawn and deposit is refunded. But he will not have
power to to withdraw. This will reduce spurious form
filling.
(for detailed explanation, please see IRV on wikipedia)
The election procedure we use is “single vote, first
past the pole” i.e. one voter can cast only one vote and the candidate with
highest vote wins. This procedure has a flaw which has been known since 1200 AD
– voters can not vote for the candidate they like most ; they are compelled by circumstances and procedure to
vote for the candidate who can defeat the worst of the winnable
candidates. This is not to say that voters prefer winnable over unwinnable, or winnability impresses anyone at all.
Let me explain with one example. Say in one election,
BJP and Congress are contesting with 4 more independents, A
to D. Say a citizen likes Mr. A. But he fears that if Congress wins, he will
lose badly. In such case, ensuring that Congress loses is his first priority.
And so he will end up voting for BJP, even if he thinks that Mr. A is better
than BJP candidates. Likewise, someone may like Mr. A, but he believes that if
BJP wins, he will be worse off. And so he has not much of a choice but to vote
for Congress. So we see that voters cannot vote for the candidate he likes most
– but he has to vote for candidate who can defeat the winnable candidate he
hates most, even if he hates that candidate.
The problem has been known for past 800 years. And the
solution is also 800 years old – it is known as Instant Recall Voting. I will
explain by giving complete description of IRV
1.
Say 8 candidates namely PersonA,
PersonB, …, PersonH are
contesting
2.
Then ballot paper design can be as follows
candidate number |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
Party |
Cong |
BJP |
CPM |
BSP |
Ind |
Ind. |
Ind |
Ind |
candidate name |
PersonA |
PersonB |
PersonC |
PersonD |
PersonE |
PersonF |
PersonG |
PersonH |
Symbol |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
the most honest |
Most Honest |
Most Honest |
Most Honest |
Most Honest |
Most Honest |
Most Honest |
Most Honest |
Most Honest |
2nd most honest |
Second Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
3rd most honest |
Third Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
4th most honest |
Forth Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
First Proposed ballot
paper design for Instant Recall Voting aka
Preferential Voting
3.
he details of the ballot paper design are as follows
a.
the ballot paper has 8 rows
b.
first row shows candidate number, second row has part
name, third row has candidate name, forth row has symbol;
c.
the fifth row is for the candidate whom the voter
thinks is most honest
d.
the sixth to eight rows are for the candidates whom
the voter thinks is second most honest, third most honest to forth most honest candidates
e.
there are (nCandidates + 2)
columns – the first and last columns have row headings and one column for each
candidate
f.
the height of ballot
paper will be 14 inches – 0.5 inch border at top 0.5 inches
for 1st row having candidate number, 1 inch for second row having
party name, 2 inches for 3rd row having candidate name, 1.5 inch for
symbol row, and 1.5 inch for each preference and 0.5 inch border at bottom =
(0.5 + 0.5 + 1 + 2 +
1.5 + 1.5*4 + 0.5) = 12 inches
g.
the width of the
ballot paper will be : 0.5 left border, 2
inch for first row and 1.5 inch for each candidate and 0.5 inch for right
candidate. So if there are 8 candidates, the ballot paper will be (0.5 + 2 +
1.5*8 + 0.5) = 15 inches wide. If there
are 5 candidates, the ballot paper will be (0.5 + 2 + 1.5*5 + 0.5) = 10.5
inches wide.
h.
the borders will be 0.2 inch thick
so that the stamp will not spill over two cells
The vertical design is as follows
# |
Party |
Name |
Symbol |
The Most Honest |
2nd Most Honest |
3rd Most Honest |
4th Most Honest |
1 |
Cong |
PersonA |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
2 |
BJA |
PersonB |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
3 |
CPX |
PersonC |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
4 |
Ind |
PersonD |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
5 |
Ind |
PersonE |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
6 |
Ind |
PersonF |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
7 |
Ind |
PersonG |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
8 |
Ind |
PersonH |
|
Most Honest |
Second Most Honest |
Third Most Honest |
Forth Most Honest |
4.In the IRV I am
proposing, if there are more than 8 candidates, then there will a
pre-election, 30 days before main election, where the four parties/candidates
which got highest votes in the previous election need not contest and only the
rest will be on the ballot paper. This pre-election ballot paper will have
single vote. The 4 candidates which get highest votes in this pre-election will
qualify for main election
5.
In the main election, the voter will put 4 stamps, one
in each row and in any columns of his choices. Thus he will give 4 preferences
amongst 8 candidates.
6.
The ballot box will
have wider slit so that ballot paper has to be fold only once along the height.
Does any country use IRV?
Yes. Ireland has been using IRV to elect its President
for past over 70 years. The number of votes are 30 lakhs, twice our
Parliamentary constituency. While Ireland is small country, but then we have
more counting staff as well. In addition to Ireland, Australia and many
countries have been using IRV for decades.
Counting and Results in IRV
In IRV as above, there will 7 rounds of counting.
°
In the first round, there will be 8 piles based on
first preference.
°
In second round, the candidate which got lowest vote
is deemed defeated. And any candidate which got less than 1% of polled votes
will be also deemed defeated. So there will be at most seven candidates. And his votes are
re-distributed based on second preference on that ballot paper.
°
In third round, the candidate which got lowest vote is
deemed defeated. So there are now at most six candidates. And his votes are
re-distributed based on second preference or third preference of the ballot
paper.
°
And so till there are only two piles. And the person
who has highest votes is declared winner
°
At any point, if one person get
more than 50% votes, then winner is decided. After that counting will still go
on for 7 rounds, but
result will not be effected.
°
In the last round, the person who gets highest votes
will be declares as winner.
Administrative details of counting
°
Say there are 15,00,000 and 1500 booths. So there are
1500 ballot boxes.
°
Then Collector will have about 7 rooms, each with
about 200-250 booths, each room will have 10-15 tables. So there will be 20
sub-rounds of counting in each of the 7 rounds of counting.
°
In each sub round, each table will get one ballot box.
It will make 8 piles. After counting, it will add the ballots to the piles.
Actual count in most cases
If number of voters are say 15,00,000 then most voters
on an average will give only 2-4 preferences, say 3 preferences on an average.
In such a case, one ballot will change pile at most twice. So actual ballot
counting is not 7 times 15,00,000 but no more twice of 15,00,000.
Advantages of IRV
IRV is immune to clone effect and so adversaries will
not waste time in sponsoring clones. Also, IRV enables voter to vote for a good
but seemingly unwinnable candidate as first preference and then give vote to
winnable candidate as 4th preference. Thus, voter feels protected
and the seemingly unwinnable candidates get highlighted. And the seemingly
unwinnable candidate may actually win !! This is an
important plus point of IRV that new candidates’ dependence on media-owners
reduces and media-owners’ power in effecting the outcome of election decreases.
So IRV makes elections less dependent on media-owners.
The Rajyasabha MPs should be elected by citizens, and not via
MLAs. The election via MLAs results into auctioning of seats literally. This is
nothing new – even in US when Senators were elected by MLAs, the sell outs were
common and which is why citizens forced Senators to enact a law-draft that
would enable citizens to elect Senators and not MLAs.
And we should elect
Rajyasabha MPs using proportionate voting in the
state. Each party or group of independents can put their ordered list. A
citizen will cast one vote with 5 preferences (IRV) towards any of the 5 lists
and number of candidates that will get elected will depend on the number of votes a
list gets. This will create proportionate representation in the Rajyasabha.
I propose following law-draft for inner party democracy
1.
A person who wants to be member of a political party
will need to and can appear at Patwari’s office, pay Rs 3 fee and submit the serial number of the Party he
wishes to be member of. EC will allow a person to be member of any number of
Parties.
2.
Talati will post the names on EC’s website.
3.
The Party President will submit a list to EC , which will contain the list of members he has approved.
The EC will also put that list on EC’s website.
4.
The Party President can cancel the membership in next
3 months without giving any reason
5.
The Party’s Constitution may divide members into 5 or
less categories – A, B, C, D and E.
6.
If the Party’s Constitution says that MLA candidate
must be elected by members of certain category , then
District Collector will appoint a Tahsildaar, who will
conduct an election amongst the Party members of specified category and EC will
allocate the ticket only to that candidate
As of now, the draft of the above proposed law-draft is not ready.
And given the level of corruption, in EC, Collector, Tahsildaar
and judges, no political party will accept such clause and very few citizens
will agree to force this laws on political parties. Once RTR laws have reduced
corruption EC, Collector, Tahsildaar and judges,
citizens may agree to force inner part elections on political parties.
When RTR comes, it will enable citizens to expel
candidates. So no candidate will plan or even dream of collecting crores of
bribes. So desire to spend tons of money in campaign will decrease.
Please send order to PM and Loksabha
Speaker via SMS that your Yes\No sent via SMS on any bill presented in the
Parliament should be posted on the website of Parliament. Please also see chap-13 of this
book http://rahulmehta.com/301.htm . It has several steps where-in you can
spend 6 hours a week and help to bring TCP draft in Gazette in India. The steps
involve distributing pamphlets, informing citizens on motives of leaders such
Congress MPs, BJP MPs, The Anna, Arvind Gandhi etc. who oppose TCP draft, by
giving newspaper ads, contesting elections. Once TCP gets printed in Gazette,
using TCP, it will become easy for activists to get citizens’ opinion
law-drafts mentioned in this chapter on electoral reforms, such as Right to
Recall MLA, RTR MP, RTR CEC, Inner Party Democracy, Preferential Voting System,
Increasing Deposit Amount etc.. This will bring electoral reforms in India at rapid rate.