Electoral Reforms

No election system is ever perfect, and India's, after decades of experience, has generated a long list of reform proposals from the Election Commission, political parties, independent groups, and scholars. Some of the most discussed suggestions include:

• shifting from FPTP to some variant of PR, so that parties win seats more closely in proportion to their vote share;
• a special provision guaranteeing that at least one-third of MPs and MLAs are women;
• stricter controls on the role of money in elections, including having election expenses paid out of a special government fund rather than by candidates and parties themselves;
• barring candidates with a pending criminal case from contesting, even while their appeal is still pending before a court;
• a complete ban on the use of caste and religious appeals in campaigning; and
• a law regulating how political parties themselves function, to make their own internal working more transparent and democratic. …