A Note from the Election Commission

Here is a note sent to The Edict by The Election Commission appointed to conduct elections for Ashoka’s fourth House of Representatives.

The Ashoka University Undergraduate student body election will happen in just under 2 weeks. With campaign in full swing, parties and candidates will lock heads to win seats in the House of Representatives. As the Election Commission, we are looking forward to bring to you a fun and participative election. The AUEC was established to conduct free and fair election to the student House of Representatives. It is our job to organise the election debates, oversee the voting procedure, count the votes and declare the results of the election. However, before we delve into the details of the election, allow us to share some crucial changes that were made by the EC and approved by the HoR.

A new amendment has defined that under the present election system at Ashoka, candidates who contest as part of a party’s list are extensions of the party and not individual members with independent mandates of their own (this, of course excludes individual candidates).Therefore, in case of a voluntary resignation of a representative from a party, the representative will lose their membership of the House. The resulting vacancy is then filled by the party member with the next highest number of votes garnered in the previous election.

Secondly, the electoral code now specifies the penalties the AUEC can accord to any violation of the electoral code, shown below:

Now, to the fun stuff. Continuing with the tradition of election debates at Ashoka, we urge you to mark your calendars on the 8th and 12th of February for two promising events — The Manifesto Presentation and the Presidential Debate:

1. Aap ke Ummeedwar (Your Candidates): in this debate, party candidates and independents will outline the agendas of their candidature, why they should be voted into the House of Representatives, and what they hope to achieve if they are elected. Much of the success of this event depends on your participation, and to that end, we will open the floor to questions from the audience to the candidates.
2. The Presidential Debate: In this event, while individual candidates stand alone once again, parties will send one representative each and make their final pitch to the voters. Alongside a neutral moderator for the debate, we have decided to invite news and media outlets on campus to question the candidates.

The two debates and the (month) long campaign period will culminate on Election Day, the 15th of February. While in essence the voting process remains the same, we have a new voting machine in place. Designed by freshman and potential CS major Kshitij Kapoor, the new system will email a unique QR code to each voter on campus. On the voting day, voters will have to bring their QR Codes to the polling booth. The system will scan the QR Code directly from smartphones or from a printed copy, and authenticate the voter if the QR Code is valid, thus enabling a fair voting process.

In Kshitij’s words, what makes this software better than its predecessors is that:

Unlike the previous system, the new one keeps record of people who have voted using the unique QR codes. This removes the element of human error and greatly reduces the amount of human labor. Moreover, the QR Code based identification system makes the election process secure and tamper-proof, it also eases the process of proxy voting. This system also supports multiple polling booths.

Needless to say, we urge you to attend the two debates and cast your vote on voting day. It is your engagement with the process that makes Ashoka’s internal politics meaningful. So show your support, express your concerns, question the system, or reject a contender, but in the end, do make your voice heard!

Note: Previously, this article mentioned that the HoR had made the recent changes to the electoral code. This has since been modified because while the approval of at least 2/3rds of the HoR is required to pass an amendment to the code, it is only the EC which can suggest changes be made at all.