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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

17/11/23 10:09 AM IST

State funding of Elections

In News
  • A Constitution Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, recently reserved its judgment on petitions challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme.
Pubic funding of elections
  • Public funding of elections can certainly bring transparency in the poll process, but it depends on how it is done.
  • Four reports have looked into the viability of state funding of elections.
  • The Indrajit Gupta Committee Report, the Law Commission of India Report of 1999, the Report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission in 2008, and the National Commission to review the working of the Constitution Report of 2001.
  • The first three said that state funding is desirable to an extent.
  • The Indrajit Gupta Committee Report,says state funding should be done only in kind and not in cash.
  • It also says that state funding of elections would be a waste of public resources unless it is accompanied by factors such as democratisation of political parties and decriminalisation of the political process.
  • It says unless there is internal democracy in political parties, state funding of elections will be a waste of public money.
  • So, it lays down conditions under which public funding of elections can be, and should be, considered, and not necessarily adopted.
  • State funding is viable only if parties are internally and demonstrably democratic in their functioning, transparent in their financial affairs, and there is a reliable mechanism of ensuring that parties and candidates do not accept money from other sources.
Provision for Election Funding
  • If an amount is to be set aside for public funding of elections, we need to know how much money was spent in the last election.
  • That number depends on a couple of factors. First, the money that the Election Commission of India spent.
  • This data is available and reasonably accurate. Second, the amount spent by political parties and candidates.
  • This figure is known only to political parties and candidates who contest elections.
Models across the World
  • There are some 34 countries where state funding of elections is available in some form or the other.
  • The highest proportion of state funding of elections is in Norway, which is about 74% of the total expenses on the election. But there are different models.
  • In some countries only parties get the fund, candidates do not. There are countries where it’s the other way round.
  • In most countries where there is public funding of elections, there are also strict transparency requirements.
  • In the U.S., there is a rule that if the presidential candidate raises X amount of money, they are eligible to receive an equal amount of money from the government.
  • But this is subject to certain conditions. In the last two or three presidential elections, no candidate has accepted government money.
  • They have said that they do not want to accept these conditions and that they are able to raise enough money on our own.
Way Forward
  • If there is to be any public funding of elections,then there  would be complete transparency about the money spent by the party or the candidate in the election.
  • If a candidate or a party is allowed to accept other money in addition to public money, there is a very serious problem. And that is the reason why no political party has taken it forward. 
Source- The Hindu

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