1. PROPOSALS TO REDUCE THE INFLUENCE OF MONEY
AND MUSCLE IN ELECTIONS
Team: WindsofChange
Abhishek Tiwari
Achyoot Sinha
Asis Dash
Kaushal Ketan Shah
Kumar Ashlesh
Manthan Topic : Fairness at Play

2. Overview
2004: Average wealth of
MP = INR 1.86 crore
2009: Average wealth
of MP = INR 5.33 crore
383
86
76
162
Criminal charges on Lok Sabha
MPs (15th Lok Sabha)
No criminal charges
Non serious criminal charges
Serious criminal charges
186% increase
Influence of money and muscle in elections remain a serious problem
for India – Actual spending in each election = 3 to 5 crore per
candidate (INR 8,000 crore black money per election)

3. Measures to reduce influence of money –
involve more middle class
 Need to involve more middle class
 Lower propensity to be influenced by money
 Internal migration of 307 million (according to 2011 census) for jobs
creates challenges for voting
 Enable people to vote from anywhere in the country to increase
participation and better self governance
 Convenience in voting due to electronic voting machines
 Leveraging Indian strength of the IT industry for seamless voting
experience
Measures to increase participation of middle class in voting
will reduce influence of money

4. Measures to reduce influence of money –
regulation of monetary contributions to political parties
 Regulate monetary contributions to political parties from individuals,
corporations and organizations
 Contributions should be based on the per capita income of India
 For example – Capping individual contributions at 2 times per capita
income
 Capping institutional contributions at 5 times per capita income
 Result in reducing influence of wealthy individuals and/or large
corporations
 Challenge – Lack of political will in Implementation
 Solution –
 Public pressure for passing such a legislation to initiate curbing the
influence of money in elections
Regulating money supply to political parties will reduce
influence of money

5. Measures to reduce influence of money –
control of Election Commission in disbursing donations
 Central flow of donations
 Facilitation of all donations (personal from family members or external)
to a central account maintained by the Election Commission of India
 Disbursement of donated amounts to intended recipients via ECI
 Enforcement of donations laws (described above) to be overseen by ECI
 Better and stricter execution of the Election code of Conduct
 Result in greater transparency and better control in the donation process
Flow of all donations through Election Commission of India will
make the process more transparent

6. Measures to reduce influence of money –
allocation of media time by ECI
 Providing some free and equal media slots during election campaign to
all candidates for office (including print, radio, television, etc.)
 Result in elimination of the big money facilitating election campaigns via
media
 Election statistics show that in over 90% of elections, the candidate that
spends the most money wins
Equal and fair media time allotment will provide equal
opportunities to all parties

7. Measures to reduce influence of money –
focusing on first time voters
 Focus on first time voters
 Studies show that voters who vote in their first eligible election continue
to keep voting much more
 Leveraging positive social effects: Focused study by a Yale professor –
 Earlier elections used to be a public affair and people took pride
 Later it became a private affair.
 People only care if their neighbors know that they voted in spite of
knowing that their single vote might not make a difference
 In a controlled experiment, the researcher sent out lists of people who
voted (without revealing whom they voted for) – resulted in an increase
in turn out in the next election
 Reminder for voting using latest technology
 Increase in voting by 4% as a result of sending a text reminder (as
found out by Cambridge Researchers)

8. Measures to reduce influence of muscle –
equal duration for campaigning
 Make it illegal to start campaigning before a certain date prior to an
election
 All candidates have equal campaign duration, so that campaigns will
consume less time and money
 Introduce “term limits” for politicians
 Too many voters are too easily bribed and hence bad politicians keep
coming back
 Authorize the District Magistrates to follow only the orders of the ECI during
the election period
Better implementation and laws on preventing campaigning
before a certain date will reduce influence of muscle

9. Measures to reduce influence of muscle –
reform vote counting procedures
Reforms in Vote-counting procedures
 Introduce Fair play index of candidate in vote counting
 Introduce one fair play index formula, which will be determined by no
of criminal cases, tax frauds, etc of candidate
 Total number of votes received will be multiplied by this number and
final output will decide who wins
 Allot similar index to political parties based on total number of tickets given
to criminals, people facing corrupt charges etc.
 Multiply this factor to total number of seats received by that political
party
 Result in reduced incentives for giving tickets to criminals
Adjusting the number of votes polled for each party/candidate on the
basis of legal cases against them will ensure better politicians
reaching the parliamnet

10. Measures to reduce influence of muscle –
approval voting and administrative changes
 "Approval Voting" – the way to go forward?
 Proven by studies that it eliminates spoiler effect
 Reduces negative campaigning.
 Transparency in financial transactions of political parties during
election campaigning
 Framing of laws to ensure that a unified price list for political
advertising during election campaigns is made public via media
 Strengthening rules on equal access to the media – adopting such
practices from other countries.
 Monitoring of observers and presiding officers to prevent bribes and
influence on the outcome of elections.
 Class 1 officers who have been accused of corruption should not be
appointed Election observers or Presiding officers.

11. Conclusion/Challenges
 Influence of money and muscle in elections are a serious threat to the
democratic process of India
 Urgent need to eliminate unfair candidates from standing in elections
 Greater participation of young, educated, urban Indians vital to the health
of our democracy
 Implementation of reforms is an uphill battle since a large number of MPs,
MLAs already have criminal records and deep pockets. Ironically they hold
the decision making powers for any kind of reforms
 However, talking about reforms and increasing public awareness about
measures to improve the election process could result in implementation of
these reforms
 India has a long way to go in order to make the democracy healthier,
thinking about the problems and spreading awareness are the first steps
towards this goal. Implementation and results would follow
 The founding principle of democracy will ensure the implementation of such
reforms once awareness levels are increased. Great examples of the power
of people trumping powerful politicians include the RTI act and the Jan
LokPal Bill

12. Appendix
 Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field
Experiment by Alan S. Gerber, Donald P. Green, Christopher W. Larimer
(http://isps.yale.edu/research/publications/isps08-001#.UiiuBMbde2U)
 University of Michigan and Princeton researcher with Student PIRG New
Voters Project and Working Assets Wireless
(http://www.newvotersproject.org/research/text-messaging)
 http://lawmin.nic.in/ncrwc/finalreport/v2b1-9.htm
 http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/dangerous-for-
democracy/article4530365.ece
 http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/migrations.aspx
 http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/the-rs-81-500-crore-lie-137943
 http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/Contesting.aspx