Voter's ID card: costly experiment
The Independent Internet Edition
24 June, 1998
Election rigging is one of the biggest problems of our political system. To overcome this problem, we have conceived two revolutionary ideas: Caretaker government and Voters' Identity Cards (VICs). The first idea is already in operation and seems to be working quite well. The second idea is under scrutiny. In 1994, the then BNP government undertook the VICs project at an estimated cost of Tk 300 crore scheduled to be completed by December 1995. Later, the budget was reduced to Tk 180 crore and the project period was extended till June 30, 1996. Being unable to complete the project by the stipulated time, the Election Commission (EC) requested the Planning Commission to further extend the project till June 1997.
The Planning Commission made two observations on EC's request: (i) VICs is a sensitive matter that demands a "political decision by the present government and (ii) the project has some basic implementation problems. Accordingly it refused to further extend the completion time. All activities on VICs project have now remained suspended indefinitely.The project got a big boost from the Supreme Court Bar Association's seminar, Electoral Reforms, on 6 December 1997.VICs project is thus a matter of great public concern. The previous government conceived the idea; the present government contradicts it; important personalities support the idea.The fundamental purpose of VICs project is to prevent false voting perpetrated through impersonation, undetectable through electoral laws and customs. VICs are redundant if impersonating voters can be detected but these are meaningless if impersonating voters are detected but can not be prevented from voting.How serious is the problem of impersonation in our electoral system? Some degree of impersonation does exist in our electoral system. Impersonation did not surface as an electoral problem in the British or the Pakistan period, when people were little aware about their voting right or the importance of elections. Why should it now be a problem when we are much more conscious? Indeed, the situation can be effectively controlled by the existing electoral laws and procedures. It is public knowledge that our political parties have created these reprehensive election rigging problems through two means.
The first one is the fabrication of election results by those entrusted with electoral responsibilities. This takes place after voting is finished and ballot boxes are sealed and returned to appropriate authorities. Only the party in power may execute this type of rigging, because it requires active or passive cooperation of those encrusted with electoral responsibilities.
The second method, which takes place right at the polling stations, has two common techniques: (i) preventing voters from casting their votes or making them cast votes in favour of the preferred candidate, either through intimidation or enticement or both; and (ii) snatch ballot papers and cast them. Political party or parties having stronger musclemen can resort to the second means.
The current electoral system of Caretaker government appears to have eliminated the first problem; army needs to be deployed to control the second one. Thus, impersonation apparently appears to be much less than a problem in our electoral system. VIC is then unnecessary in our election system. If we still insist to go ahead with the project, we need to consider two things: (i) Can we afford it? and (ii) Should we practise it? How much will VICs cost to the nation? Here are some rough calculations. The original and revised budgets for the project were respectively Tk 300 crores and Tk 180 crores. The VICs project was intended to cover 20 per cent of eligible voters. The newspaper report, however, does not clarify whether the coverage is for the original budget or the revised one. This leads to two different estimates.
Twenty per cent of the project was completed at the cost of Tk 97 crores. Thus, the completion of the current project would have cost Tk 97/0.20 total 485 crore and the full-scale implementation of the project (covering all eligible voters) would cost Tk (485.00/0.20)= 2425.00 crores. If the original budget is used, then the estimated project cost is:Tk (2425.00/0.60)= 4042.00 crores (the revised budget is 60 per cent of the original one).
The final estimation of project costs needs two additional adjustments: (i) adding costs incurred by individual voters and (ii) adjusting the figures for inflation and increasing number of voters. How practical is the project? About 80 per cent of our population live in rural areas, most of them are poor and illiterate; communication and transportation systems are rudimentary; and finally, one-half of the eligible voters are women, many of whom are forbidden from taking pictures because of religious customs.
Besides these, general people have little interests in our elections. How these voters would react and respond to the requirement of exercising their democratic rights getting VICs? It may be mentioned that voters' turn-out in elections in even most democratic societies is seldom greater than 60 per cent.Given the nature of costs and consequences, VIC is not a practicable electoral idea: a full-scale implementation of VIC project would further erode our election system, instead of improving it. Recently the Election Commission has added two more points according to a newspaper report: (i) VICs have other utilities; they can be used as "ration cards, driving licence, banking transactions, business permits, health cards and so and (ii) if people, especially those living in rural areas, understand that the ID cards will be useful for them in many ways, they will come forward to get the cards and protect those carefully.
The Commission is waiting for the response of its letter to the Prime Minister written about six month ago. If PM okays its proposal, the Commission would resume the project from mid-August with a revised budget of Tk 195 crore.The Election Commission has touched on the most vital point in this issue - voters' interests in getting VICs: People require photo ID cards for driving licence, banking transactions and business permits. Photo ID cards are not still required for obtaining ration or health services. If the government makes photo ID cards mandatory for procuring all these services, then concerned people must get them.
The question is: How many people use these government services? How many people in rural areas have cars/auto rickshaws, do banking transactions or need business permits? The Commission's justifications appear to be rather flimsy. If the Election Commission wants to bring about reforms in its electoral rules, it should justify its proposal with departmental reasons. All government departments are related and therefore can potentially benefit from one another's programme. The experience however shows that such inter-departmental cooperation is a very rare case. Besides, some people may consider VICs as offending as they are intended to prevent cheating.
Now-a-days, the government is under tremendous pressure from donor agencies to cut down its services to limit budget deficits. As a result, many essential public services are being reduced. Under the circumstances, how rational is the VICs project given the facts that it has little or no merits of its own, that it may cut down other public services and that it may increase budget deficits? The VIC is undoubtedly an important national issue: It has both economic and political consequences. Besides, it might discourage eligible voters from casting their votes in elections, implying erosion in our electoral system. The Planning Commission has already identified VICs as a sensitive matter and recommended for political decision by the present government. The issue truly deserves to be debated in the Parliament.
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