Karnataka votes: Inside a polling station

COVER S
TORY

Project Democracy: Election Management in India

As India braces for the big battle of the ballot thistake
month,
you we
behind the scenes
of the 2008 Karnataka Assembly Manage
polls.
India decodes the precision planning
that goes into an election
It was the third week of May 2008 with the way the elections had
India (ECI), clearly defines the entire
and Vidhan Soudha, Karnataka's seat concluded. The polls were by and election process and the roles and
of power in Bangalore, was preparing
large peaceful. It was the first time responsibilities of each individual
to welcome a new government. The that votes were cast exclusively on involved in the process. The
Assembly elections earlier in the
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Karnataka electoral office had also
month had presented a new politicalIt was also the first time in Karnataka
introduced several Standard
force emerging in the state; the
Operating Procedures (SOPs) to
that the Model Code of Conduct
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was
(MCC) that governs electioneering in manage the project more efficiently.
making hectic efforts to form a
Specially-designed web-based tools
the country was strictly enforced.
government on its own for the first Vidyashankar credits the success of helped track progress and coursetime in South India. As the scene of
correct whenever required. Besides,
this mammoth exercise to a wellheightened political activity shifted rehearsed system that applies project there were tools for timely and
from electioneering to government
effective communication during the
management principles at every
formation, the Chief Electoral Officer stage.
run-up to the elections and also on
(CEO) heaved a sigh of relief.
the day of polling and counting of
votes.

The SOPs in any standard project management are in

operation in full steam in elections. The only
differentiator is that the system in this case relies
more on human resource than technology-related tools

Mind-boggling numbers,
spectacular show
The world's largest democracy has so
far held 14 general elections in which
the entire country went to the polls to
M.N. Vidyashankar,Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka
elect a government at the center.
Besides the general elections, the
There were several reasons for CEO The Handbook for Returning Officers, different states hold elections to their
issued by the Election Commission ofrespective Assemblies to elect
M.N. Vidyashankar to be satisfied
6 MANAGE India Mar-Apr 2009

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ANNOUNCEMENT

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Project Management Institute India announces the flaunch
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o
conference
on 'Leveraging Project Management for Business Results
arma(Ph
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The conference will feature presentations from industry leaders

The conference features parallel sessions on the and senior executives, and interactive panel discussions. It aims
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discuss key issues related to managing projects inproject managers in the pharma and automobile sectors.
these sectors. Key discussion points of the
conference will include:
Speaking about the conference, managing director, PMI India,
Raj Kalady said, It is one of the major initiatives that we have
undertaken to spread the message of project management. We
! Organizational project management structure
felt the need to organize a specialized conference based on the
! Product and project lifecycle management
feedback that we have been receiving from these industry
! Project risk management
sectors. We are sure that the idea of an industry focussed
! Project management and new product
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excitement among the industries and project managers.
! Program and portfolio management
For further details, speaking opportunities, sponsorship and
! Collaborative tools and practices used for
participation in the conference, please write to
project management
narayan.pv@pmi.org.
! Organizational project management
maturity model
(This is an advocacy event and no PDUs are being granted.)

PAGE 7

COVER S
TORY
governments at the state level. The steam in elections. The only
The tracker generates automatic
May 2008 elections in Karnataka were
differentiator is that the system in reminders to the RO by email,
the 13th edition in the state. Elections
this case relies more on human
followed by an sms and then a call.
were held for 224 assembly
resource than on Information and
The to-do's increase on the day of
constituencies in Karnataka. A total Communication Technology (ICT)
polling. The tracker would ask for
of 2,242 candidates and seven
and other technology-related tools, hourly updates, explains
political parties tried their luck with says Vidyashankar. A total of 2.2 lakh
Vidyashankar.
the ballot. The candidates fought
(200,000) people were engaged, that
bitter battles to win the confidence of
included electoral office staff and
Similarly, there is a tool to track cases
over 40 million voters. Of them,
government employees assigned
of violations to the MCC in real-time.
almost 65 percent exercised their
election duty. In all, 225 companies This
of
is a menu-driven solution that
right to franchise. Close to 42,000
central police forces were deployed, is easy to operate. When a violation is
polling stations were set up for
besides the state's own police force recorded, the tracker sets a chain of
people to cast their vote. The
and around 20,000 home guards.
triggers in motion. The portal that
elections were conducted in three
hosts these tools are passwordphases.
The CEO's office has been using IT-protected and can be accessed only by
enabled project management tools to the CEO and the ROs, adds
As candidates fought the battle for help smoothen the process further. Vidyashankar.
the ballot in the streets and lanes ofFor instance, there is a web-enabled
High stakes, umpteen challenges
Karnataka's towns and villages, the tool to monitor the progress from the
CEO's core team strategized to ensure
day nominations are filed to the dayThe stakes are high, and all the
it was a free and fair and peaceful of counting. The tracker helps focusstakeholders have to be taken along to
election. In an election, each assembly
on some of the key to-do's in the win
run- their confidence in the election
process.
The CEOs office is primarily
constituency is headed by a
up to the elections. It gets activated
responsible
for facilitating the
Returning Officer (RO), who is eitherthe day candidates file their
elections.
The
entire district
a sub-divisional magistrate or an
nominations. This web-enabled tool
administration gets into election
assistant commissioner. He/she is theasks for daily updates. By 4 pm every
project manager for that constituency day, if the RO has not updated themode.
and enjoys quasi-judicial powers. Theportal, we get an alert on our system.
RO reports to the ECI and any
complaint filed by the RO is heard by
The Election Process In India
the High Court of that state. For
Stage Primary
Milestones
Tools used
Timelines
everyday execution, the RO is in
authorities
constant touch with the state CEO.
Election
1
Election notified 45 days (appx)
Mass media
Together, they form the core team.
The electoral office received a budget
2
of Rs 670 million to conduct the
elections. This was, of course, besides
what political parties and
independent candidates would spend 3
for campaigning. The main heads for
expenditure were fuel for vehicles (on 4
an average, 40 extra vehicles were
hired for each assembly
5
constituency), payment to polling
staff, stationery, maintenance and
battery for EVMs and temporary
structures erected at polling stations 6
and counting centers.
The SOPs in an election process
The SOPs in any standard project
management are in operation in full 7
8 MANAGE India Mar-Apr 2009

PAGE 8

Commission of
India

before the date ofannouncement

election

Returning
officers (RO)

Issue of
nomination
forms

7 days to file
Rules in the
nomination papers Handbook for ROs

RO

Scrutiny of
nomination

2 days after
nomination filed

Rules in the
Handbook for ROs

RO

Withdrawal of
nomination

2 days after
scrutiny

Rules in the
Handbook for ROs

Campaigning/
Election
13 days for
Observers (EO), vigilance undercampaigning
Model Code of
ROs, state police
Conduct (MCC)

MCC, videography,
human intelligence

EOs, ROs, stateVoting/enforce

ment of MCC
police

1 day (each state

could go into
polling in 1-5
phases)

MCC, Electronic
Voting Machine
(EVM), human
resource deployment,
videography

EOs, ROs, stateCounting of

police
votes

1 day

EVM, human
resource deployment,
videography

COVER S
TORY
The challenge or the marvel of an
election, as Vidyashankar would like
to put it is that the entire state
machinery gets involved in planning
and organizing the election;
yet, the
day-to-day administrative work has
to go on. Unlike in a typical project,
the timelines in an election is nonnegotiable. Once the election dates
are announced by the ECI in New
Delhi, the process kickstarts in every
state, district, zone and taluk levels.

The different stakeholders the

Vidyashankar has an informal briefing session with his team.
state government, the ECI, the CEO's
The CEO's team clocks in extra hours in the run-up to the elections
office, polling staff, the state
administration, the state police,
The SOPs and tools prescribed
staff conducted mock runs at polling
central paramilitary and reserve
by ECI
stations half an hour before polling
forces, state civil defense forces and Dependence on the human element is
had begun. Except for a few stray
political parties and their election
so high that the ECI rules do not incidents, there were generally no
candidates all have their own setleave scope for ambiguity and
issues of malfunctioning of EVMs.
of objectives. Often a big challenge personal interpretations. The 400for the electoral office comes from the
page Handbook for Returning Officers
is Human resource deployment rules:
state government which has to
the single-source reference point for Human resource was deployed on
facilitate a free and fair election. Butpolling staff. It lists out SOPs for the
the day of polling in such a way that
the outgoing government belonging various stages of the election processno one could attribute bias on the
to another political party could create
and does not allow for any deviation.
part of the personnel deployed. Three
roadblocks in this process. Again, the
conditions were checked before
state police have to allow different The Model Code of Conduct (MCC):
The
posting somebody in a polling
political parties to hold election
MCC governs electioneering in the station: he/she should not be
rallies yet ensure that a rally does not
country. During the 2008 elections inworking in that Assembly
threaten peace in the region.
Karnataka, over 2,200 criminal cases constituency; he/she should not be
for violation of MCC were booked. residing in that constituency; and
The election process in India is
Election staff used this powerful toolhe/she should not be deployed in
fraught with archaic laws.
to seize cash to the tune of Rs. 22 his/her home town constituency.
Irregularities in the voter list, like the
million and goods worth about Rs.
absence of voters' names, incorrect 230 million. These were going to beAfter imposing these conditions, a
details etc. are the result of inefficient
used to influence voters. These
software was developed to
laws and processes. Elections in
criminal cases were filed in the High
randomize the polling personnel, and
India are a highly manpower, time Court. Moreover, the MCC helped the final round of randomization was
and energy-intensive activity
the election staff ensure that it was undertaken just 24 hours before the
compared with the process in many largely a green election. In the entirepolling day. This way the polling
other countries. The people and
state, banners, posters, buntings, etc. personnel did not know the booth
material deployed during the
were not allowed.
they were going to before their actual
conduct of elections in this country
departure for duty. Similarly,
will be much more compared with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM):
counting personnel are selected from
similar exercises elsewhere.
This is The deployment of EVMs in the
a database that is randomized just
not only because of the country's
Karnataka Assembly elections had,
two hours before the counting starts.
advantage of numbers, but also
no doubt, minimized the possibility
because the election laws continue toof violations, like impersonation and Confidence-boosting measures:
be archaic and have not kept pace booth capturing. Bharat Electronics
Central police forces are deployed
with technology-related issues,
Limited (BEL), who supplies EVMs, during and immediately preceding
explains Vidyashankar.
tested the machines before use and the polling dates. This is a measure
trained officials on election duty. Theresorted to by the ECI to boost the
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COVER S
TORY
confidence of voters in sensitive
areas/constituencies to signal that
free and fair poll would be
conducted.

ambiguity in the plan and

process, among its various
stakeholders. In the recent
ECI has been bringing out
regulations (like the MCC)
elections are free and fair.

the

Timely communication is crucial for a

project of this nature. The CEO's
past, the office has now formulated an
rules andelaborate communication plan to
to ensuretrack progress and take timely action.
The ECI deploys general observers
We did not have it for the Assembly
and expenditure observers. The
polls. But for the 2009 parliamentary
general observers ensure the
Calendar of activities:From the day
elections, we have introduced a
enforcement of MCC at every stage elections are notified by the ECI to communication platform that
from filing of nominations to
the date of counting, there is no
includes 40,050 polling staff. We can
counting of votes. The expenditure ambiguity and scope for negotiation now contact all presiding officers and
observer monitors the expenditure
regarding dates. The electoral office ROs through wireless and cellphones.
incurred by candidates and political has the power to requisition
This will help take timely action and
parties. The ECI has imposed a
whatever material and human
manage the election process better,
ceiling of Rs. one million per
resource it requires to enable a
says Vidyashankar.
candidate. On the day of poll, microsmooth process.
observers are deployed in polling
Voluntary organizations, like Election
stations that are considered sensitive Responsibility matrix:The ground
Watch, Vote Bangalore and Jaago Re,
or hyper-sensitive.
rules are set
the mandate is to
are helping to enhance the awareness
ensure the elections are free and fairof voters. The role of these
and peaceful. The administration, the organizations in the coming elections
Use of technology:
Every stage in the
process (nomination filing to
police, political parties and
will grow.
campaigning) is videographed so thatcandidates, and the election office
any deviation from the prescribed
and staff on poll duty are given a The process can be more peopleprocedure/rule and any violation of clear charter of duties and
friendly with wider and better use of
the MCC is captured. Again, when responsibilities.
technology. Otherwise, the system is
EVMs from all the polling stations are
fully geared to fulfill the mandate,
taken to the designated strong room,Who manages the project:
Though it
says Vidyashankar. +
it is videographed. The strong room involves several stakeholders, the
is sealed in the presence of politicalultimate authority in an election is
parties/candidates/agents, and it is the ECI. The ECI is represented in the
Elections in India are a
the responsibility of the police
state by its election observers who
highly manpower, time and
department to safeguard it.
have the final say in times of a crisis.
energy-intensive activity
At all other times, the RO is the
compared
with the process
Resolution of challenges
project manager for that constituency.
in many other countries.
and conflicts
The ECI vests quasi-judicial powers
This is not only because of
The task of managing an election inon the RO to return a candidate to the
India would seem daunting to any Assembly or Parliament, as the case the countrys advantage of
numbers, but also because
project manager. It involves a huge may
of
be.
the election laws continue
number of stakeholders with varying
to be archaic.
objectives, innumerable risks, many The way ahead
of which are not accounted for, an Archaic laws are hampering higher
unwieldy team scattered in different use of technology for the entire
places that comes together for a brief
election process. For example, the
period, and archaic laws.
process can be simplified for a new
voter to be registered or an ineligible
The electoral process involves project voter's name to be deleted from the
management at various stages. Here rolls.
The process now requires
are some of the key factors that have
submission of Form 6/Form 7, an
made the election process a success: enquiry spread over 7-10 days on the
application, a decision by the
A well-defined plan:
Over the years, the electoral roll officer concerned on
system has been defined to the
inclusion or deletion, etc. The entire
minutest detail. There is no
process can be made online with
M.N. Vidyashankar,
Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka
appropriate changes in law.
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