Despite a 10% decline in voting across the world, India reversed the trend by hitting the 65% mark

World is about to see off the biggest election year in history. Almost half of humanity was involved in election exercises across continents, ranging from large democracies like India, USA and Indonesia to island nations like Tuvalu with 11,000 population. Citizen voters, in over 70 countries, millions of them first timers, attempted to address their own situations at the voting booths.

The last of the national elections came this Sunday in Chad in central Africa amidst an opposition boycott.Universal suffrage remains the spine that holds a dithering democratic fabric whose other ingredients are in constant debate. BR Ambedkar linked elections to political democracy, ushering conditions for equality and justice. But if elections are undermined by impurities, process glitches, fake narratives, boycotts, competing claims, street protests, violence or even abandoned midway, that could be the proverbial last nail. The Stockholm-based International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), in its report ‘Global State of Democracy 2024’, points to a certain erosion of credibility of elections compared to five years back, owing to declining turnout and other pathological conditions. The experience in India’s neighborhood as elsewhere has been mixed at best.

Declining interest

Elections continue to be democracy’s beautiful action play, especially the view of ordinary folks queuing up to vote. The average turnout of voters in elections this year is estimated to be at 61%. During the 15 years from 2008 to 2023, there has been a disconcerting decline of about 10% in voting across the world. India, with its electoral list inching towards a billion, has successfully reversed the trend by hitting the 65%-mark third time in a row, starting from 2014. Women turned out at a higher rate again in 2024 like in 2019. The best part of this year’s last two assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra is the record turnout.

Not a family show
Campaigns have made elections a spectacle, an ugly one off late. Electioneering is developing as a democracy malfunction with misinformation, racist references, outright abuse and misogyny becoming its part. Poll time divisive narratives from top leaders could leave unremedied scars and dent unity. Champions of unbridled freedom do not find a problem with campaign rhetoric even of the most repelling imagery; that’s what democracy and rights are about, they would say. But hate speech amplified by social media and made potent by artificial intelligence, is becoming a bigger concern because it is seen yielding electoral victories. Reasonable restrictions, enforced by India’s model code, have been of partial help. Top-notch campaigners and party bosses must take the responsibility, a point hammered by Election Commission of India in recent polls.It is surprising that elections of the 21st century still veer around identity: in US elections, the segments read as: coloured women, white workers, Hispanic, Asian, college goers or dropouts and in Indian context it is: OBC, SC, ST, minority and majority religion. Each one is a vote bank, the contesting candidate reduced to a mascot. For the USA that swears by individual worth, one commentary after November polls was that it is not ready for a woman president yet and a coloured one at that.

Outcomes bite, limit the bitterness
Worse is the growing trend of political contenders hesitant to accept statutorily derived results. One in five elections between 2020-2024, was challenged by the defeated candidates. Even as votes were getting counted to decide the 47th Presidency in the United States, the world was worriedly recalling the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Donald Trump notched an emphatic victory, but a moot question is what if it was otherwise. Joe Biden exuded the ultimate grace of democracy when he asked supporters to “bring down the temperature”. On the electoral system, Biden further said, “It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted, win or lose.”Disappointment over electoral outcomes can be provoking. But polity and politicians in India and everywhere have an urgent obligation not to fall into a trap that could erode public trust. It will be myopic to shift blame to voting equipment or a standard procedure after an electoral loss.

Well Commissioned India

The Constitution of India has imaginatively raised certain institutions to serve as guarantors for the country’s democratic arrangement. The ECI is the critical one which gathers the franchise, counts and delivers the result that is convertible to legislative and executive leadership. Its conduct of 18 Lok Sabha and over 400 assembly elections has been rated highly by all stakeholders and by the wider world, irrespective of seasonal grievances. One sufficient pointer to performance is the negligible re-polling in only 40 out of 10.5 lakh polling stations in the last Lok Sabha polls. Smooth conduct of both parliamentary and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, with high people’s participation is another impressive statement.Election management bodies (EMBs) across countries are reforming and acquiring tech-backed efficiencies but voting and counting remain points of vulnerability. Safeguarding voters against lies, fakes and inducements is another ever expanding task. Unlike ECI, which has a staggering capacity for execution, others may require collaboration for ensuring electoral integrity. India clearly has a role to play.

Last Defence
The 2024 Economics Nobel recognises the role of democracy and its institutions like free and fair elections in upholding prosperity. Voting rights and correctness of representation have witnessed sizeable compromise in parts of the globe, but there have been elections this year, which immaculately embodied expression of people’s will. The International IDEA underlines that India, and some other countries have “allowed the voters to have an effective voice”. Good elections look like the last sure wall to not only prevent any democracy downslide, but also to enhance its promise.

(The writer is former Director General, Election Commission of India)

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