Election Rules

Election Rules?
Twenty years ago there was a letter to the editor in Malayala Manorama with a
huge caption which said that in aAssembly or Parliament elections no candidate should
contest from more than one constituency.
Why this very simple yet important thing is ignored by legislators is perhaps easy to understand: they do not want to destroy their extra chances, who knows who might need it any way.Contest from not one but two or three places thus increase the chances of winning one seat. Well, here one must accept that election is not really a track event, it is a more serious thing indeed.Why serious? No, there is no need to attempt an answer, every one knows it better than one can put into words.
However, for argument's sake we need to put it into so many words some aspect of importance.Election is a political as well as governmental process. Evey thing done and said goes into record and stands to face scrutiny and judgement. Government has to provide and protect all necessary premises, machinery and personnel with full responsibility at the expense of enormous manpower and money.Anything from any politician or party jeopardizing government's constitutional intentions and purposes should be illegal and punishable.The general public has 'funded' the government for all election-related expenses Evey person has suffered lots of inconveniences, and expenses too, by the end of the election process, in all earnestness and seriousness.So they have the right to see that nothing has been in vain. Now what if one person wins two seats?? This does happen, as we all know.
And it must be granted that any person competes but with a hope to win.If no hope he
would not go for it. In elections, has any one the right to hope to win from two places?? The answer has to be an emphatic NO. Because no man can sit in two seats at the same time. Precisely because of this a person who has won two seats must relinquish one (resign before
occupying) immediately. Consider the rightness and righteousness of such step!Because he
has won two the right thing for him now is to resign form one, no doubt at all. Here, whereas
this resignation is right as it is compulsory it implies total violation of any principles of
righteousness.It is a breach of trust against people who voted for him in that constituency.All
the expenses in money, thought, energy ..in his favor and the final ballot - all lost. Truly people
are cheated; they have to play it all back again.A similar liability is created for the
government, too, of which the need cannot be totally justified The re-election is precipitated by a compulsory resignation but the wrong is not in the
resignation ,as we know. It is the undeserved winning which automatically generated the
situation. The public is not to blame for voting. Naturally the end of elections is the voting.
They did not know while they voted that he would cheat. In a way one might even absolve the candidate seeing that he is a simple
avaricious imperfect fellow who did not know that he would win this seat any way.The blame
ultimately must go to the election rules wherein a clause is missing, so that the election
commission could not conduct the election in a foolproof manner.But then what is the election
commission doing during holidays?? It must foresee the possibility of this catastrophe of an
instant re-election , and take preventive measures.Since the envisaged rule is solely for
control of election candidates, and therefore directed towards sitting members as well as other
possible and future candidates they are not themselves the ones to formulate and pass such a
rule. Who will make it, then? Naturally, the power, and the responsibility are with the election
commission.The commission must pass an order that no person shall seek vote from more
than one constituency and ensure, during filing and during scrutiny of nomination papers, that
this is kept up so that the government and the people are not cheated