Time for election management bodies to devise ‘election integrity index’, says CEC

“Measuring ideology is surely a worthwhile occupation and has its uses. But, those who measurement the antiauthoritarian indices and the parameters they usage request to beryllium rational and transparent. There is an opaqueness successful the indices which are used. While truthful galore different considerations tin beryllium subjective successful interpretation, an predetermination is perchance a hard information connected the crushed that holds grounds to the quality of predetermination integrity in a country. Parameters to measurement electoral integrity indispensable transparently beryllium based connected specified hard facts, alternatively than connected views and anecdotes,” helium said.

While Kumar did not sanction immoderate peculiar ranking, successful the past fewer years, the Democracy Index published by The Economist and the Democracy Report by the V-Dem Institute person flagged a diminution successful India’s position.

The CEC said determination were immoderate indices based connected “few media reports and societal media conversations, without looking astatine the hard facts of elections”.

“Such ratings go tools for discrediting elections. At times, these ratings travel erstwhile the elections are live…Therefore, possibly it is clip to person an ‘Election Integrity Index’, either successful summation to ideology scale oregon a abstracted scale wrong ideology scale with pre-qualified weightage…Let’s not marque beingness hard for EMBs by being insensitive to the credibility of the predetermination which is happening by the EMBs which faces truthful overmuch of challenges…It is besides clip for EMBs to devise and request transparency successful the parameters which are utilized for indices, possibly this is 1 country for deliberations successful future,” helium said.

He said the indices should instrumentality into relationship the mode the predetermination was conducted, if voters could registry freely, if determination were immoderate restrictions connected them from coming retired to vote.

The CEC besides flagged the menace of “external influences” done “cyber interference and disinformation” facing EMBs today. He said portion societal media platforms had democratised entree to information, they had besides go tools to destruct the halfway of democracy. He said “anti-pollution measures” were needed for societal media. He said algorithms tin beryllium utilized to observe fake quality and halt its circulation. He said the EC had to walk clip and vigor during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to antagonistic fake contented online.

This isn’t the archetypal clip that the CEC has expressed interest implicit ideology indices. Speaking astatine different league hosted by the ECI up of the Summit for Electoral Democracy successful Mexico successful 2022, Kumar said ranking of democracies should beryllium nonsubjective and see the section discourse of the country. Later that year, the CEC said astatine the Association of World Election Bodies gathering successful South Africa that the parameters utilized by immoderate planetary organisations for assessing democracies needed to beryllium revisited.