The Challenges of Elections in India

If you think lines are long at your polling station, imagine what things must be like when over 700 million people come out to vote. Hartosh Bal, political editor of the Indian newsweekly Open, talks about the extraordinary challenges faced by election officials in the worlds biggest democracy, and why such a high percentage of Indians from all classes enthusiastically participate.

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Aaron Schacter: Voter turnout may well determine the outcome of today’s presidential election here in the U.S. and if turnout is high the total number of ballots casts could be close to 130 million. That sounds like a pretty big number, right? Not by the standards they use in India. Voter participation in the worlds most populous democracy is traditionally high and rising. Hartosh Bal is political editor of Open, a weekly current affairs magazine in India. He says the country faces many of the same challenges we do when it comes to national elections but its electorate is a whole lot bigger.

Hartosh Bal: The electorate of I think about 700 million voters turning out and the election takes places in phases. You cannot possibly cover the entire country in one day so the elections are staggered over ten or fifteen days in different parts of the country. Whichever part of the country happens to go to the polls firms, government and private are required to give a holiday on that particular day. There’s a considerable amount of enthusiasm but the voting process, the day of voting, has a certain mystery[INDISCERNIBLE 0:01:02.3] to it which is sort of more like a fair. It’s a sense of participation in something important.

Schacter: It sounds like it’s literally a holiday.

Bal: Well, yeah, it literally is a holiday.

Schacter: Now people often talk about the logistical challenges here in the United States – diverse populations across cities and rural areas. We have some language issues and the number of people at polling stations but I mean compared to India as you say with 700 million people voting, how is it that India can manage such successful elections?

Bal: We have a separate federal autonomous body that has its own funding, it’s own budget, that actually takes charge of the election machinery, going into the elections on election day, and up til counting. And the political process whether it’s…we also have a federal system whether it’s the center or the states, has no say in the election process whether it is deciding who can vote, who can not vote, what identification is needed for voting. This is all under this autonomous body. It is totally depoliticized from the system. The political parties do not see this as a partisan process; neither do the voters.

Schacter: Now I understand also that there is a high voter turnout among the poor in India and with all due respect it seems like a voting block that might be easily manipulated.

Bal: Yes, there are allurements to rural voters. There is a direct transfer of money. There is even distribution of liquor. Quite apart from that this is a tendency that goes across all parts of India. The turnout of the poll of the less well to do in this country is higher than the middle class and the well to do. And this can’t simply be explained in terms of allurements or inducements. It is actually a process by which they feel empowered because it is one of the few ways in which they engage with the political system or the administration.

Schacter: So it’s a moment during the year perhaps or a moment during every few years where the poor actually feel like they can control something in their own lives?

Bal: Well, yeah, if you can’t get your legislator to work for you at least you can vote him out of power. Even that is empowering in some way.

Schacter: Hartosh Bal, thank you so much for you time. Really appreciate it.

Bal: Thank you. That was a pleasure.

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