The Bihar Election: A Test Case for the ECI's Credibility and Electoral Reforms
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Indian Polity and Governance (Election Commission of India - ECI, Elections, Electoral Process and Reforms, Electronic Voting Machine - EVM, Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail - VVPAT, Postal Ballot, Electoral Rolls).
Mains:
General Studies Paper 2 (Polity & Governance): Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act; Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies (ECI); Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability.
Key Highlights from the News
The upcoming Bihar Assembly elections will be a crucial test of the impartiality and efficiency of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
To enhance the credibility of the election process, the ECI is implementing several new electoral reforms in Bihar.
Key Reforms:
The maximum number of voters per polling booth has been reduced from 1500 to 1200.
Postal ballots will be counted before EVM votes are tallied.
If there is a discrepancy between the count in Form 17C and the EVM count, VVPAT slips will be mandatorily counted.
VVPAT slips will also be counted in booths where mock poll data was not cleared.
ECINet is a digital platform for real-time voting percentage updates.
Live feed for monitoring from all booths.
The recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar, which removed 69 lakh names, had led to significant controversies.
These new reforms are expected to help address concerns about the transparency of the election process that have arisen in recent elections.
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