‘Voter suppression’ is any effort, either legal or illegal, by way of laws, administrative rules, and/or tactics that prevent eligible voters from registering to vote or voting (Vote, 2019). With the ongoing 17th Lok Sabha elections in India, there have been growing concerns and speculation over the dark acts of voter suppression in India owing to the issue of disallowance or prevention of a major portion of the Indian electorate from exercising their franchise; which will tremendously influence the results of the elections on 23rd May, 2019. This article attempts to analyze the causes of this developing narrative of voter suppression in India.
Missing Voters
1. Electoral rolls
According to the Election Commission data, the total number of eligible voters that would vote in the seven-phase elections of 2019 is 895 million. However, since the first phase of the elections, there have been sweeping instances of missing voter names from the electoral rolls. There were 1,027 cases of missing names across the four phases, and phase 3 exhibited the highest number at 778 cases (iVote, 2019).
Activists say 40 million Muslims and around 30 million Dalits are not included in the electoral rolls, raising fears of targeted suppression (Malhotra, 2019). The numbers include those who may not have registered to vote in addition to the names that may have been deleted. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka alleged mass deletion of voters in the list, while in Uttar Pradesh; it was the Indian National Congress (INC) supporters cried foul. According to experts one of the easiest tools of exclusion is Form 7 of EC which can be filled by anyone requesting the poll body to remove an individual’s name. Since there is no verification or One-time-Password procedure; it can be misused by political forms by filling the forms in various people’s names. Such procedures amount to nothing but a huge electoral scandal and there is a call for transparency and clear information in the electoral system.
The National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), which took place in 2015 was Election Commission of India’s (ECI) attempt to use software based on Aadhaar, the national biometric identity database, to flag duplicate voters’ names for deletion. This raised issues like coercion and wrongful deletion of voter names. The ECI stopped NERNAP in August 2015 but the damage done may have been significant and lasting. In 2018, the Telangana Chief Election Officer apologized to the public for deleting names of over 3 million voters during the linkage of Aadhaar with Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) under NERNAP (Khaira, 2019). In the ongoing Lok Sabha elections as well, there were cases where Aadhaar was illegally declared as mandatory and all those who lacked it were not allowed to vote despite their names being listed on the rolls.
2. Women Voters
According to the 2011 census, by 2019 the total population of women (aged 18 and above) in India will be 97.2 per cent of the total men’s population. Consequently, the percentage of women electorate in the 2019 general elections should be close to that of the total men electorate. However, according to the Election Commission data for 2019 states that women voters are only 92.7 per cent of male voters (Sopariwala, 2019). The data indicates disenfranchisement of around 21 million women voters that translates into 38,000 missing women voters in every constituency in India on average. This staggering figure definitely has an impact on the outcome of the election as there are a large number of Lok Sabha constituencies that are won or lost by a margin of less than 38,000 votes.
A number of social, political and administrative factors can be attributed to the missing women voters from the electoral rolls. This includes women who were not registered to vote and women “who were not in the population because of gross neglect” (worsening sex ratio, which reflected the gross neglect) (Biswas, 2019).
The Election Commission adopts a rigorous statistical method- gender ratios, elector-population ratios and age of voters- to make sure that eligible voters are not left out. How then a major chunk of women voters are not registered and are disenfranchised at once? Whether it is a deliberate attempt or not remains speculation, but, the mass exclusion of women electorate does indicate a significant problem in the electoral system.
3. Migrant voters
The Economic Survey for 2016-2017 states that ‘new estimates based on railways passenger traffic data reveal annual work-related migration of almost 9 million people, almost double what the 2011 Census suggests.’ Section 20 of the Representation of the People Act says a person can be registered as a voter in any constituency where s/he is "ordinarily resident". In a decade alone, millions of migrants have moved from their primary residence to different parts of the country. If they have a family back home, they are unlikely to register themselves to vote in their new place of residence. To travel and go back to their primary residence includes expenditure on travel and losing out on wages, thus, increasing the difficulties for them to cast their vote. A new study titled ‘‘Urban Migrants: The silent spectators of Indian Elections,’ by India’s home rental platform Nestaway, has revealed that nearly 91% of people in urban India are not yet registered to vote in the cities they live, especially after their move to another urban location (Bureau, 2019).
There exists a facility of postal voting as well as proxy voting for around 1.5 million members of the armed forces as they are on transferable jobs and cannot easily move back to their primary residence. The Election Commission must facilitate a mechanism for the increasing number of migrant workers. There will be difficulties in the implementation of the scheme and the worry of corruption and voter fraud is real, but there can be no excuse in a major democracy for not making them easy to vote. Leaving them in this limbo is perhaps akin to what is called ‘voter suppression’ (Sopariwala, 2019).
Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctions
Ever since India has ushered into the new era of innovative electronic voting machines, elections have not been immune to the allegations of EVM rigging and manipulations. While the experts discredit the charge of EVM tampering, there have been several instances of EVM malfunctions reported in the Lok Sabha elections 2019. According to iVote, a citizen journalism data tracking project, there have been 1,092 instances of EVM malfunctions across the four phases. The team specifically monitored citizen reports that claimed that their VVPAT results were not aligned to the votes they cast on the EVM machines in Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Maharashtra, Kerala, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir and Goa across the four phases.
There were also reports of voters turning away without casting their votes due to a severe delay caused by EVM malfunctions (iVote, 2019). While we credit the Election Commission for the humongous task of conducting Indian elections effectively, these instances of technological disruption, decreasing the number of votes of eligible voters cannot be ignored.
Violence
There were around 19 reports of violence leading to not only injury but also death, with maximum reports coming in from West Bengal, followed by Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Uttar Pradesh. This time, both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties have eagerly sought alliances with other, smaller regional parties. Since alliance partners put up joint candidates, the number of political aspirants who are denied tickets has increased, leading to acts of violence by political workers (Purohit, 2019).
West Bengal registered the highest voter turnout of 76% despite several incidents of violence recorded in different parts of the state. Unprecedented security arrangements have been made with the deployment of 561 companies of security forces and 88 companies of quick response teams. More than 95% of the polling booths had central forces (Singh, 2019)
Elections held across Naxal affected areas between the period of 2016-2019; such as Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh are predominantly marred with Maoist attacks targeting politicians, polling stations, polling staff, and journalists during the election period. For years, the violence and the fear of left-wing extremists have discouraged voters to come out in large numbers and exercise their franchise. Given the number of reports covering violence across the country during elections, it can be clearly said that this interest based aggression of different groups is an evident and outright form of voter suppression in India.
Conclusion
The 2019 Lok Sabha election is replete with examples of political parties resorting to unprecedented efforts to impact or influence the outcome of the election. Of these, 73.91 per cent were vote securing tactics by the BJP, while 26. 08 per cent were coercive attempts aimed at benefiting the Congress. The staggering reports on infringement of people’s right to vote suggest that Indian elections have now plunged into the discourse of ‘voter suppression’, predominantly akin to the United States.
Through some cases, it is evident that the political parties have resorted to subtle tactics of voter suppression and is an issue that needs to be undeniably probed. Irrespective of the questions of motivated attempts or disenfranchisement of targeted groups, it is certain that a large number of people of the largest democracy in the world have been unable to participate in the government formation. To what extent then elections in India are free and fair? If this is not a major failure of our democratic institutions, then what is?
References
Biswas, S. (2019, March 14). India election 2019: The mystery of 21 million 'missing' women voters. Retrieved from BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47521208
Bureau, B. (2019, April 10). A whopping 91% of urban migrants in India are not registered as voters: Study. Retrieved from Bussiness Insider: https://www.businessinsider.in/general-election-most-of-urban-migrants-in-india-are-not-registered-to-cast-a-vote/articleshow/68315993.cms
iVote. (2019, May 1). We tracked voter suppression over the last four phases. Here’s what we know so far. Retrieved from Newslaundry: https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/05/01/general-elections-2019-voter-suppression-what-we-know
Khaira, R. (2019, April 24). Elections 2019: Systematic Pattern Of Missing Voters Worries Experts. Retrieved from HuffPost: https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/repeated-denial-of-voting-rights-in-systematic-pattern-worries-experts_in_5cbdfed0e4b0f7a84a734696
Malhotra, A. (2019). Allegations of mass voter exclusion cast shadow on India election. Retrieved from AlJazeera.
Thakker, A. (2018, November 12). How a scheme to clean up India's electoral list may have left out millions. Quartz India. Retrieved from https://qz.com/india/1459512/aadhaar-voter-id-linking-may-have-left-of-millions-in-india/
Purohit, D. P. (2019, April 12). SECURING DEMOCRACY: ELECTORAL VIOLENCE IN INDIA. Retrieved from ACLED: https://www.acleddata.com/2019/04/12/securing-democracy-electoral-violence-in-india/
Singh, S. S. (2019, April 19). Sporadic violence in phase 4 of West Bengal polls. Retrieved from The Hindu: https://www.thehindu.com/elections/lok-sabha-2019/sporadic-violence-in-fourth-phase-of-bengal-polls/article26979184.ece
Sopariwala, P. R. (2019). The Verdict. Haryana: Penguin Random House.
Thakker, A. (2018, November 12). How a scheme to clean up India's electoral list may have left out millions. Quartz India. Retrieved from https://qz.com/india/1459512/aadhaar-voter-id-linking-may-have-left-of-millions-in-india/
Vote, D. t. (2019). Demand the Vote. Retrieved from https://www.demandthevote.com/what-is-voter-suppression: https://www.demandthevote.com/what-is-voter-suppression
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