Huka V Awomi
Satoi Town (Thsuruhu Village)
A lot of money (both black and white) being used by the politicians during campaigning and bribing, changes the face of the election. This makes the situation just opposite to free and fair elections indirectly. The problem continues unabated because-
1. The candidates spend a lot of money during elections and once they come into office, they try to recover that money by resorting to all kinds of illegal and corrupt practices during his tenure in power so as to fund his next election, thus creating a vicious cycle of black money.
2. Filing for the nomination as a candidate and producing fake financial documents, educational documents and related documents required for nomination through forgery involves money.
3. Bribing candidates to step down or recall their names from the election lists, to kill competition or avoid diversion of votes, depriving the citizens a worthy representative
4. Race of over spending among the candidate to woo voters.
5. Different stake holders provides huge amount of money and muscle power to the candidate during elections and in return, politicians pay them anyhow, leading to the vicious cycle of crony capitalism.
6. Criminalization of politics leading to more no. of candidates from criminal background
However some of the following can be done to curb the money problem in the election-
1. Election commissioner must be given more powers and it must act in a harsh manner in the cases related to corruption.
2. Stringent policing and monitoring mechanisms on election campaigns to check illegal money transfers should be implemented.
3. Education and awareness to the voters for creating a healthy democracy.
4. Strict vigilance on last hour drops out contestants, their actions, and seeks proper citations for the decisions.
5. Debarring candidates from criminal backgrounds to contest elections.
6. Mass media should act in non partisan manner and enforcing a stringent action against paid news.
7. Speedy trial of election disputes must be done by special courts.
8. Most importantly, citizen should stop selling their votes.
There is an urgent need to bring in some reforms in the election related issues as this has become a menace in the path of Developing our society. It is very necessary that role of money power is reduced in election as a citizenry participation requires that election are fought on the basis of policies rather than money.
