Democracy within Political Parties

In News

• The Election Commission is likely to take up the issue of internal democracy within parties.

More about the issue

• Internal elections:
  • Several political parties today do not insist on conducting internal elections to secure their leadership in India. 
    • Even if they do conduct polls, they lack sufficient contestation and are done to reaffirm the dominance of the high command. 
• Dictatorial leaderships:
  • The political party in Andhra Pradesh recently elected its Chief Minister as its president for life.
  • From national political parties to regional, in India, the political parties have engendered a parallel system to democracy due to dictatorial modalities of work. 
  • There is a concentration of power in a few in the party while the rest are powerless and forced to follow the powerful ones. 
• Distribution of tickets, candidate selection & defectors:
  • In the run up to the Lok Sabha 2014 elections, the poor status of intra-party democracy in the distribution of tickets and candidate selection comes to the forefront repeatedly. 
  • Candidates from various parties are switching over to other parties and parties are welcoming such defectors warmly.
• Causes/Reasons:
  • Disunity:
    • Parties fear that such elections could foster disunity, as opposed to nomination and consensus-building on leadership. 
  • Multi-party systems and Financing structures:
    • The fragmentation of India’s polity into a federalised, multi-party system has given way to domination by “charismatic” individuals or their families.
    • It is mainly because of the nature of support that these parties enjoy or due to their financing structures which necessitates centralised control by a single coterie or a family. 
  • No power with Election commission: 
    • The Election commission does not have any statutory power to enforce internal democracy in parties or to mandate elections. 
    • The lack of such substantive power only leads to parties carrying out the ECI’s edicts in a mechanical manner. 

Significance of internal party democracy

• Establishment of democracy:
  • It needs to be understood that the growth of a democratic republic comes from the participation of citizens at the grassroots level 
  • It is vital for political parties to establish in-house democracy so that governments will reflect transparency accordingly.
• The actions of a government are consequences of a political party:
  • The more a political party is methodical under the democratic apparatus, the more transparent the government will be, and if political parties are undemocratic; the governments will follow the same footmark. 

Election commission’s guidelines

• Representation of the People Act:
  • The ECI has periodically used guidelines issued for registration of parties under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to remind parties to conduct elections and to ensure that their leadership is renewed, changed or re-elected every five years. 
• Party constitution:
  • The EC’s guidelines for parties applying for registration under the Act state that the applicant should submit a copy of the party constitution. 
    • “There should be a specific provision in the Constitution/rules and regulations/memorandum of the party regarding organisational elections at different levels and the periodicity of such elections and terms of office of the office-bearers of the party,” the EC guidelines say.
• Power of de-registration of political parties:
  • The commission has asked the Law Ministry for the power to deregister political parties in the past, but the proposal has not been implemented so far.
• No permanent president for a party:
  • The Election Commission of India (ECI) has also recently rejected the idea of a ‘permanent president’ for a party.
    • The ECI says such a step is inherently anti-democratic.

Suggestions & way ahead

• Transparancy in distributing party tickets:
  • There is a critical urgency to allow political parties to democratize themselves which will reflect the way the government will respond in a republic. 
  • If parties get internal democracy, the process of distributing party tickets will become corruption-free and transparent.
    • In this way the competent candidates will get a chance to fight elections as a true representative of an ideology.
  • Public pressure:
    • With dynasticism and a lack of internal democracy becoming a matter of public debate, perhaps public pressure would finally bear upon parties to do the right thing.
• Elections:
  • Any party that participates in a democratic process, and wants to govern and legislate, should include formal and periodic election of office-bearers as part of the way it functions as an association. 
  • Election commission should be given more powers to mandate such elections.
• Example from USA:
  • Republican and democratic parties in the USA elect their party heads for presidential election through a delegate voting within the party.

Source: TH