The 2024 General Elections in India have shown that it is possible to fix elections in a myriad ways. One just needs to be completely immoral and ruthless in pursuit of power. Here are some ways, in no particular order, that I have seen upto the 5th Phase:
- Capture systems of checks and balances; to wit, the Election Commission that is meant to oversee free and fair elections.
- Use pliant and/or vulnerable and/or venal polling officials to
- deny voting rights to people based on their religion and/or class and/or no reason at all.
- allow thugs to vote multiple times.
- manipulate voting rolls to delete names that are potentially inimical to the party in power.
- Trash votes that have been cast and count votes that haven’t been cast.
- Deny candidates their right to contest by:
- not accepting their valid nominations.
- finding some flaw in their nominations so as to debar them at the last minute.
- Put up dummy candidates with the same or similar name as your biggest rival and assign them symbols that are similar. Uninformed voters will get confused and press the wrong button.
- Pay or threaten small parties who have no chance of winning but have some equity to put up candidates to take away votes from your rivals. The B Team approach.
- Ignore the Model Code of Conduct by continuing to canvass for votes in neighbouring constituencies after deadlines. Also, by invoking religion in asking for votes.
- Spread elections over a long period of time; making it possible only for parties with substantial resources to maintain the campaign momentum.
- Deny the citizens the right to know what the polling numbers were – percentages and totals. Announce numbers after a few days, numbers that mysteriously do not match booth level data captured on the day of the polling. Read this chilling piece by a security consultant posted on Prem Panicker‘s substack (Smoke Signals) about how it is possible to cheat the voters and steal an election.
- Manipulate machines that register and count votes. In some cases, make off with the machines (this link is from 2021; will update with a 2024 one later).
- Ensure that there are too many people assigned to few booths in a densely populated, politically hostile area. This slows down voting and ensures that people who have to depend on daily wages for their evening meal get tired and leave.
- Deny access to the differently abled.
- Grab most of the political donations that are squeezed out of corporate houses by using bribery and/or threats and/or laundering of black money. Outspend the opposition.
- Freeze bank accounts of principal opposition parties hamstringing them.
- Imprison opposition leaders, even sitting Chief Ministers, denying them the chance to canvass for votes. A pliant judiciary helps in denial of bail.
- Throttle and/or buy off media so that none of the opposition’s poll-promises or campaigns get any publicity.
- Lie. Lie. Lie. Rinse and repeat till the lie becomes the truth.
- Keep wheeling out pet ‘experts’ who will keep broadcasting that you are going to win and win handsomely. Repeated enough times, it appears to come across as a given. People don’t like to vote for a losing cause and swing voters come your way.
- Use administrative machinery and tax-payer’s funds to canvass.
- Force, by threats or blandishments, candidates to withdraw from the fray at the last minute.
This is a partial list only. I am sure other techniques will occur to me. I will keep adding.
Makarand
Musings of a wanderer 