The election system in India

This is India, the world’s largest democracy. In India more people vote in parliamentary elections than in than in the whole of the USA and EU put together. Yes, there’s an election going on, but, Danni, it’s probably best if you don’t run. For several hundred years something called the British Empire ruled India. It was a British colony.

The British had control over all the money, and did not share that with the Indians. So they’re probably pretty tired of people from other countries deciding things. But maybe you still want to know how elections are held? This is Vivek. Vivek is one of the many people in India who can neither read nor write.

He is illiterate. But he can still vote! Here every party has a picture, a symbol that people recognise. What is Vivek is doing now? Well, when he votes he has to dip his finger in ink.

It needs to be visible that he has already voted so that he can’t vote twice. Can’t he just wash it off? No, it’s a specific type of ink that can’t be washed off. Is Vivek choosing a prime minister, or a president? No, he’s voting for his member of parliament.

India is divided into over five hundred voting districts, or constituencies. Each constituency has one seat in parliament, a mandate. These are the parties running in Vivek’s constituency. Vivek listens to the radio and TV to find out what the different candidates believe and then chooses whom he wants to vote for. It is the candidate who gets the most votes in their constituency that is elected to parliament and becomes a member of parliament.

This electoral system is called first past the post. Suppose the candidate that Vivek votes for wins. What happens then? Well, they then sit as member of parliament in the lower chamber of parliament - Lok Sabha. That’s where they write the laws.

If a party doesn’t get more than half the seats, that is to say a majority, then that party can ask other parties to form a coalition so that together they have a majority. The majority can then choose the Prime Minister. It’s almost always someone from the party with the most members of parliament. The prime minister is the head of government, appoints the country’s various ministers, and is in charge of foreign policy. In the upper chamber of parliament, Rajya Sabha, laws can also be written, but only those laws that don’t cost the government anything, that don’t affect the state budget.

Laws that do require use of state money can only be proposed in the lower chamber. India’s regions elect people to the upper chamber, in indirect elections. So Vivek can’t vote for a candidate directly. Instead he votes in local elections to elect his region’s local parliament. Then, the regional parliament votes for the candidates for the upper chamber.

Every region has a specific number of seats in the upper chamber, depending on how many people live in that particular region. The regional parliaments also select, along with the national parliament, India’s president. In India it’s the president who approves laws. The president can also decide that laws be changed. Apart from this, the president’s foremost role is to ensure that the country’s constitution is upheld.

Yes, there’s a very long queue to the ballot box, isn’t there? All kinds of people! Indian society is very unequal, and except for times like this, there’s a huge disparity between the rights of the rich and the poor. The parliamentary elections are one of the rare occasions when everyone’s voice counts equally. And that’s good, isn’t it?

No Danni, you really can’t be in on the decision-making this time.