An empirical study of managing fairness in electoral system through reforms

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Independent India, as an election-based representative democratic Nation, have successfully existed as a largest democracy in the World for more than six decades now. But after travelling these many miles we find the credibility of our electoral system is still not unquestionable. Poor stature and statesmanship of a majority of contesting candidates, use of money and muscle power, and ghost of caste, religion & regionalism are taking their tall on the fairness of the electoral process, which is amply clear from poor turnout of voters to caste their vote. This does not present a glorious picture of our electoral system. It was in the light of the above scenario that a research was undertaken to examine the impact of proposed/mentionable changes and reforms on the fairness of our electoral system. A survey, on a population of electorates was conducted with the help of a structured Questionnaire. The queries were mainly centered around age & educational qualifications for the candidates, misuse of money and muscle power, right to reject, right to recall, reservation for women, and making the voting mandatory and so on. The data so collected are analysed with the help of Excel. The interpretations of inferences and subsequent recommendations then follow.