History & Civics [2 Mark Question Answer]

The Election Commission on its own can countermand an election. It can also suspend polling when it fears a threat to voter’s security or other genuine reasons. Then the Election Commission orders a repoll that takes place within two or three days after the first polling.

If the defeated candidate has any doubt regarding unjust elections, he can file a petition in a court of law especially in High Court. He may be declared the winner on the basis of merits of the case; however, litigations have always a final choice to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The candidate who intends to contest the elections either as an individual candidate or from a political party has to fill in a form called Nomination paper. If it is incomplete, the Returning officers have the authority to reject the Nomination Paper.

The allotment of symbols is done much before the election by the Election Commission. The symbols help the illiterate to identify their candidate by the symbol, to avoid confusion of duplicate names, and to carry elections systematically.

The Election Commission fixes dates for elections. Under the Constitution, the Government decides as to when the elections should be held. The fixing of exact dates rests with the Election Commission.

The President of India is elected by a system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote by the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the M.L.A.’s of the States. The Vice-President is elected by members of both House of Parliament assembled at a joint meeting.

Conduct of Elections: The Commission conducts all elections to Parliament and the State Legislature. Besides, it supervises and directs elections to the offices of the President and Vice-President Exact dates or polls and finalised after consultations with the Election Commission.

Recognition of Political Parties: The Election Commission grants recognition to the political parties for Election purposes. These national parties are Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC) (Cong. I), the CPI (M), the Communist Party of India (CPI), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Preparation of the Electoral Roll: The Constitution lays down that there shall be one ‘General Electoral Roll’ for every territorial constituency. The Lok Sabha or any of the Assemblies may be dissolved before its terms of five years has expired. Therefore, the electoral rolls will have to be kept up-to-date all the time so that the new election may take place without any difficulty.

A ballot paper becomes invalid when

1.  It is not marked at all.
2.  The voter indicates his choice for more than one candidate.

When a seat held by any member of the Legislative Assembly in the Centre or States falls vacant due to death or resignation of the member, before completion of the term, to fill up this vacancy the election is called By-Election.

The election in which the voters do not directly elect their representatives to the legislatures or Head of State, but elect an intermediate body which finally proceeds to elect the representative or the President, such an election is called as Indirect Election.

The Constitution of India permits every person, who is a Citizen of India and who is not less than eighteen years of age and is not otherwise disqualified under any law’, is eligible to become a Voter in India.

An election is an organised process in which people vote to choose the persons who shall represent them in Parliament or the State Legislature. Elections are also held to elect those persons who hold a constitutional position, such as the President or the Vice-President of India.

One limitation of democracy in respect of elections is the ‘Proportionate Representation’ i.e. a system in which parties in an election gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.

Political parties are allotted reserved common symbols, while the independent candidates may select them from the list of free symbols. The main purpose is that these symbols may be easily recognized by illiterate people.

The division of a country or a State into a number of representative areas is called constituencies. So, a constituency is a fixed area with a body of voters or residents with voting rights. The types of constituencies are the Parliamentary Constituency and the Assembly Constituency.