#Elections2019: The voter’s guide to voting

Are you waiting to cast your vote this election season? Have you geared yourself up? Political leaders and parties have shown their tricks already through their rallies, manifestos and other media outlets; now it is your turn.

If you’re not prepared yet and have some doubts, let me help you out by answering some of the questions that commonly appear in a commonplace voter’s mind below.

Should I vote for a Prime Minister (PM), party or candidate?

Actually, you should consider all of them. However, you may need to prioritise them before you cast your vote. The candidate should come first in your priority list because s/he is the person who becomes a member of Parliament (MP) after being elected and is directly accountable for your own constituency. The party comes next as it is the party which forms the government. The government runs the country, not a single individual. Though last in the priority, the Prime Minister is also important as s/he heads the government and the Cabinet.

Can I choose a party that apparently doesn’t have a PM-like candidate?:

Yes, you can. The general election is not merely about deciding a nation’s PM. We vote for 543 MPs. Unlike countries like the US, India has a parliamentary democracy which means that citizens do not directly elect the Prime Minister (the head of the elected government), rather they elect MPs. As just mentioned, some of these elected MPs form the government who then collectively select the PM of the country. Hence the PM automatically emerges out of a parliamentary system.

Thus if a party fails to offer a PM’s face or it is going to be a part of a coalition government, it should not bring about much worry. Moreover, the Lok Sabha election is not just restricted to electing members for the PM and his/her Cabinet. The elected members represent our constituencies and they also make and enact the laws for our land (which we call legislation). So better MPs can be our focus and those better MPs will hopefully bring the better PM of our country.

But there’s no alternative, right?

There is often an existing narrative that the nation needs a strong leader for taking a strong decision and even if the government does not perform well, the PM’s persona is the most important thing as s/he heads the country. Do you remember the slogan “India is Indira, and Indira is India” during the time of Emergency of 1975-77? This also led to the rhetoric: “If not Indira, Who?”. Such a narrative is known as the TINA—There Is No Alternative—factor. Historically, this is a myth and people indeed found Morarji Desai as an alternative to Indira.

Similarly, when Rajiv Gandhi became a TINA factor, people found VP Singh as the PM candidate to replace him. The TINA factor also encourages us to believe in one person over all representatives and democratic institutions (some experts call this an authoritarian situation). If we just need only one leader, why do we call ourselves a democracy? So trust your democracy and vote for the right candidate and our democratic system will automatically find the alternative.

What can I do if the other parties are equally bad too?

This is a dilemmatic situation when the voters find flaws in all the contesting parties. But there exists nothing like “equally bad”. Of course, every party has some flaws and fails to fulfill some of its electoral promises. But you can be intelligent enough to make a distinction based on your own agendas and interests. You can ask yourself: “If the party in the governing dispensation doesn’t care about my agenda, should I allow it to continue? Shouldn’t I punish it by voting some other party?” or “Does the other party pay heed to my issues? Does it talk about them through its speeches or manifesto?”.

The party has done wrong in the past. Can I trust and vote for it?

While history has always been a lesson to us, we perhaps cannot afford to throw out a party just because it did something terribly wrong in the past. Parties should be given an opportunity to correct themselves and focus on people’s agendas. Also, fore-parents’ sins should not be passed on to the present generation. Citizens can only vote, they cannot invent political parties and even some of them do form a new party, it takes several years to become a pan-nation “third alternative”. If any of today’s parties has to offer something that is  pro-development, pro-farmer, pro-poor, and pro-small-and-medium-industries, pro-oppressed, pro-marginalised, and pro-job-creation, then that is the party that may matter to you the most.

S/he is a good candidate, but their party can’t form the government. Can I still choose him/her?

You should keep in mind that the Opposition matters. A strong Opposition side is required to keep the governing dispensation in checks and balances. Hence, even on the losing side, an elected MP’s voice needs to be heard and such voices can prevent biased or politically motivated legislation from happening in Parliament.

The government of a coalition might become unstable. Should I vote for a party possibly forming a coalition?

The stable-fable does not hold much water as we have seen nowadays that most governments depend on regional parties and a government of mixed representation is always more democratic and more representative. Single-party majority governments could be dangerous as they might pass ill-motivated or poorly-designed legislation based on their whims, just by exploiting their majority in the number of MPs. A coalition government may fall in time but that risk keeps the parties in check and makes the government more receptive to the regional parties.

Shouldn’t I vote for the winning horses because they’ll be in charge of the nation?

This is an opportunist’s (though valid) strategy where one looks for favors from the winning party or candidate. What if they do not return the favor after their victory or backstab you? Such risk remains and it should be wiser to make a judgement based on the intention and performance of the party/candidate, not on the unguaranteed favor.

Isn’t voting for a good candidate with zero winnability a waste?

Even if the candidate you find is the best among all, but lacks popularity or fights against someone who has a stronghold in the constituency, your vote to him/her still counts. This simply validates the candidates’ eligibility, a good number of vote-share reflects people’s support and hence encourages them to be in politics. This support can help a candidate work outside Parliament as well and who knows, that might lead to more acceptance by the people next time.

What if I vote for NOTA, just to be safe?

NOTA (None Of The Above) option should be the last resort for a voter. If NOTA wins, there happens to be a re-election. So NOTA cannot form a government. Also, eventually we lack a representative in the constituency until the re-election happens. So we lose direct accountability when NOTA wins. However, NOTA is always a relief for a voter when s/he finds all the candidates equally problematic and hopes for a revision on the candidates.

What should be the parameters of my evaluation?

Let me break the answer into four parts:

The PM candidate’s performance: Though “who should be the next PM” should be the least priority, the PM’s face matters as an individual, as a representative of the nation, and also if s/he becomes a repeat candidate. Looking at his/her past performances and how s/he communicates to or through the media and addresses basic issues could set a scale to measure a PM-candidate.

The nature, performance, and intention of the party: The democratic nature of a party is important simply because they “own” the candidates. So how democratic the party itself is to its members—whether it offers important positions to its women members or it discriminates members based on their religions, castes, genders, backgrounds, and dynasties—can be serious concerns. The performance can be judged from their policy implementations during their tenure as a part of the current government or their roles as an Opposition party. Also, how a party addresses the media, whether it spreads false news, fake promises, and propaganda, all these can come under the scanner. The intentions can be evaluated from the election manifesto and a winning member of the party can be held accountable if s/he fails to fulfill promises made in the manifesto.

The candidate’s background: The candidate is the one whom the voters directly vote and it is the most crucial and important criterion they should look up before casting their votes. One simple online search can bring up a lot of information about the candidate; particularly the candidate’s educational background, consistency in the affidavit declaration, criminal records, and personal assets. A good educational background (though not necessary) can signify the candidate’s ability to communicate with people, understand the complicacy of a policy and its implementation, and draft good laws for the nation. Also, educated politicians may better understand the value of education, health, industry, and agriculture. Candidates with grave criminal charges should be highly discouraged since law-breakers are rarely to become good law-makers or interested in keeping law-and-order into the  place.

The repeating candidate: The MPs who are willing to repeat their terms should be scrutinised more. The voters may know that every elected MP is entitled to use ₹5 crore per annum for doing development work in his/her constituency which comes from the MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) fund. Information regarding the fund’s usage can be found in this portal. The MPs who have utilised the fund for the development of their constituencies deserve more for re-election which can help in accomplishing the projects started by them. Some of the past records of the MPs can be easily found online or in the information provided in the next question.

Where can I get information regarding the candidate?

The attendance and parliamentary activities of MPs can be found on the Lok Sabha site and on the MPtrack site. The Election Commission of India portal is supposed to provide the candidates’ affidavits. The MyNeta Info portal provided by the Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR) keeps track records of MPs and MLA and provides comparisons of the candidates. Neta, a third party app, also provides information and reviews of the candidates.

Last but not least:

Hope the answers help you vote more wisely. I shall end this piece by mentioning a few cautions to the voting citizens.

First of all, electors can make sure their names are in the voters’ list (also called electoral roll) by searching their details online on the National Voter Services Portal’s electoral search page. Remember, if someone’s name does not appear in the list despite owning a valid Voter ID card, s/he cannot cast vote. Secondly, voters should distance themselves from social media and Whatsapp-forwarded hoaxes and the Internet is again the best to verify them. Finally, there can be a situation when a voter finds someone else has already voted in his/her name. Knowing this has happened, a voter can demand a tendered vote by ballot, following the guidelines set up by the Election Commission of India.

Voters can use the cVigil (Citizen’s Vigilance) app to report wrongdoings and malpractices during election time.