Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The four-stage Lok Sabha poll leaves an unprecedented gap of three weeks from the start of polling to the start of counting. Apart from prolonging the agony of candidates and the general uncertainty, this schedule demands extra precautions for the safekeeping of ballot boxes. Is this stretched-out polling entirely necessary? Ever since 1991, the time-table has meant multiple phases and with good reason given the logistics of ensuring peaceful conditions in 543 constituencies. The unusually long duration of the 1998 poll, adding up to almost a month from day one to the formal final results, is due to the fact that unlike the last two occasions, Jamp;K is going to the polls more or less simultaneously with the rest of the country. This is an encouraging development but means three poll dates for Jamp;K, the last of which on March 7 will be a whole week after the last phase elsewhere. The combination of security considerations and weather conditions in Jamp;K call for special measures and the Election Commission is right to allow sufficient time for them to be made. Given the possibility of the outcome in the rest of the country influencing polling in Jamp;K, there seems to have been no other option but to delay counting by an extra week.
The code of conduct which comes into force with the announcement of the poll dates ought to put an immediate end to the largesse being dispensed to potential voters. Many state governments have already exploited the interval since the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha. It is too much to expect the general run of cynical politicians to become models of rectitude overnight. The Election Commission will have to be alert to all kinds of ingenious methods of getting round the rules and to take prompt and firm action at the first sign of mischief. In an election marked by voter fatigue and the lack of clear issues, the temptations of populism are greater than ever.
