The supervision of election of local bodies of governance is vested with the State Election Commission. The state makes available staff as may be necessary for the discharge of the functions conferred . It is left to The legislature of state to make laws and provisions for election of local bodies.
Different states have enacted their own provisions for the local body elections while keeping the essence of representation of weaker sections and tenure of the bodies.
Expenditure limit of municipal elections has a wide variation in different sates. Though also related to socio-economic and level of urbanization, there seems to huge variance. In Odisha For NACs and municipalities with a population of up to 50,000, a candidate can spend a maximum of Rs 30,000. In case of municipalities with a population between 50,000 and 1 lakh, the maximum expenditure is Rs 40,000, while in areas with more than 1 lakh people, a candidate can spend Rs 50,000. While in Maharashtra The expenditure limit for candidates contesting elections to the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been increased to Rs 5 lakh. The expenditure limit for Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Thane, Nashik and Navi Mumbai civic bodies has been raised to Rs 4 lakh . The expenditure limit for those contesting the Zilla parishad elections has been increased to Rs 3 lakh .
Arguments can be put forth that raising the limits allows a level playing field in run up to elections in a locality .
The larger question pertaining however is that if raising limit is the only solution. The amount involved is certainly a deterrent for many in the weaker or weakest sections of the society. State Funding of candidates has been doing the rounds for long in India. The local body elections can be the best laboratory to experiment.A good beginning would be to fund in kind by the state the Genuine Candidates with a certain number of recommendation by the local populace .
Even in case of no state funding ,the expenditure limits can be monitored strictly after rationalization of the limit of expenditure.
NOTA(Non of the Above) selection being provided in EVMs by the Election Commission is a certainly a good omen . Provision for Re-election with barring of the contesting candidates of the first exercise if percentage of vote for NOTA is more than a prescribed limit is a logical step forward. The local body elections can provide ideal field for application of this election reform.
Other reforms like right to recall can be best experimented at levels where the number of electorates is the minimum. The ‘political will’ for such reforms will be more forthcoming than at provincial of national level. Slightly more stringent rules regards disqualification on criminal grounds than in assembly or parliament elections can be enacted in local elections.
The level of personal contact between the candidates and the electorate in local body elections touches the highest level of direct contact. It sometimes leads to direct bribing or intimidation to voters. It remains an area where educating voter seems to be the only way forward. Publishing of the affidavit by the candidates regards their wealth and criminal cases pending against them at the polling booth during the Campaign can be one of the measures to stop the menace.
More is needed to be done in terms of making public the distribution of votes polled. Sections of people based on micro locality seem to have genuine grievance of neglect of the locality in terms of implementation. With technology available the publishing of votes polled can be jumbled to keep the necessary secrecy of ballot. The experiment of mixing of ballots earlier done during counting of votes was successful . It can be replicated with little use of software.
One can not stop wondering when the self claimed apostles of public movements ,chest beaters on erosion of Democratic norms do not raise the issue of reforms at local bodies. Many of these champions of democracy believe in stopping the rot at top with ulterior motive of attention and funds.
Much debatable reform of removing political party allegiance in local body elections can be deliberated as next step.
However for most of these to happen the State Election Commission will be need to be strengthened. Permanent staffing instead of deputation should be the order of the day. The independence in functioning of State Election Commissions is often questioned by the parent body. Lateral entries , new posts and much more is needed to be done before reforms if applied can give fruits..
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