Acclaimed journalist Brian Klaas who has authored two authoritative books on how elections are rigged across the globe—The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy and the Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy—and co-authored another book—How to rig an election, spoke on how alarmingly the world is becoming less democratic at the India Today Conclave Mumbai 2019.
The key takeaways:
Democracy is like a sand castle. Perfect democracies take decades to build but they can be washed away by one big wave or can be eroded by multiple smaller waves.There are more elections than before, yet the world is becoming less democratic.Despots and dictators, who hold elections—albeit rigged—stay in power longer than those who don’t hold elections.Klaas gave examples of several elections, which were rigged, with the help of “dictators’ tool box”. In Azerbaijan in 2013, the government had declared that the election results would be declared through an iPhone app. Interestingly, the results were declared one day before the scheduled day of announcement.In Belarus, the incumbent dictator told his subordinates that he wanted 78 per cent votes. The subordinates rigged elections and got him impossible 85 per cent votes. The dictator later agreed that the polls were rigged.In Ukraine, the incumbent gave voter pen with disappearing ink in constituencies where Opposition parties were likely to get votes.In Madagascar, there is a rule that one cannot contest polls if he or she is not present in the country. The incumbent president of Madagascar did not allow the leader of the Opposition return home who had been abroad just before filing nomination. A new trend called Gerrymandering, a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party by manipulating district boundaries, has emerged. “Politicians picking voters instead voters choosing politicians,” said Klaas.One big way to rig election is by manipulation of voter registration database.Indian electronic voting machines have some advantages, as unlike in the US, Indian EVMs are not connected to Internet.No machine is tamper proof. Any machine that involves electronics is open to vulnerability. Anyone who has physical access to EVM may hack the machine. People find a way to manipulate.You can have officials engaged in tampering. There is no evidence but there is always a possibility.If there is tampering of one EVM, that could erode the legitimacy of democracy.There is something called counterfeit democracy where institutions get coopted with the government. India needs to be vigilant against that.
Quotes:
“Unless you have clear honest information flowing to the democracy, it cannot be true democracy.”
“There are warning signs that Indian democracy can get washed away. The way Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducts politics opens India to that possibility.”
“Legitimacy is the gold standard of election. If people believe that their leaders were not elected by fair means, people lose faith in democracy.”
“Elections are the beginning of democracy; it’s not the conclusion.”
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