ELECTORAL INTEGRITY AND DEMOCRACY

An election without integrity subverts the purpose of a democratic election, and cannot be considered fair and equitable. In the context of India’s northeast, elections are conducting in the normal schedules with regular interval but the query is that how far the electorates can exercised their franchise with this notion of electoral integrity? Violations of electoral rights, by contrast, constitute electoral malpractices. For conducting free and fair elections, the concerned authority provides Representation of People Acts and Model Code of Conduct reflecting does and don’ts, but many political parties, candidates and connivances have often committed illicit acts on the eve of elections. It is therefore important to understand what strengthens electoral integrity. Though insurgency is active in Manipur and Nagaland, the situation in Assam appears more disturbing, which is evident from the increasing external manipulations. Three States in the region, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim, are mostly unaffected by insurgency, while there has been substantial decline in insurgency in Tripura and Meghalaya. Thus, insurgencies in the region are largely confined to Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. In this region free and fair elections are one of the most essential pre-requisites for maintaining democratic political system. Elections in dangerous places show how flawed elections can act as democracy in reverse and diminish political legitimacy and stable governance. In most of the democratic country, violation of electoral rights and unfair means became a big question. Though the issue of malpractices and violation of electoral rights are not a new scene in the election most of the scholars and thinkers as well as right activists in particular seem to consider it as a phenomena of electoral politics. In such a situation, most of the politicians usually adopted various techniques and strategies to achieve their gold. Indeed free and fair elections may not be claimed in the real sense that one or either form of activities will challenge the electoral integrity.