The Hindu Business Line : The right to recall MPs

The Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, has repeatedly called for the introduction in India of a constitutional device that would provide the right to recall Members of Parliament if they are found to be “incompetent, insensitive, corrupt or indifferent to the duties, or indulge in activities unbecoming that of a Member of Parliament both inside and outside”. Mr Chatterjee suggests that voters should be in a position to demand the recall of their represen tatives before the expiry of their term by presenting a petition to a designated authority.

The Common Wealth Parliament Association debated the matter and considered the right to recall as a strategy for enforcing greater accountability of Parliament to the people. People are disillusioned with the conduct of Parliamentary business.

The very process of legislative functioning is subverted, leading to incalculable harm to the representation of democratic institutions.

The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution has pointed out in its report how a Parliamentary system, unlike the Presidential system, lays emphasis on accountability.

Half a century’s experience of the working of the Constitution has brought to the fore several inadequacies, failures and distortions. The National Commission referred in particular to the emergence of the unhealthy role of money and mafia power and to criminalisation, corruption, communalism and casteism.

The Electorate has no role in the selection of candidates for election and the majority of the candidates are elected by minority of votes under the first-past-the-post system.

Referendum and Recall

Democracies can be of several types — Parliamentary, Presidential and Direct. In a direct democracy, sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate.

Such an assembly may pass executive motions (decrease), make law, elect and dismiss officials and conduct trials. In a representative democracy, sovereignty is exercised by a subset of the people, elected periodically, but otherwise free to advance their own agendas. Direct democracy deals with how citizens are “directly” involved with voting for various laws, instead of voting for representatives to decide for them. Referendum and recall are pillars of direct democracy.

People at large are conferred the power in a referendum to decide whether a given law should be scrapped. They have a veto on government legislation.

Recall is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected representative from office. It was one of the major electoral reforms advocated by leaders of the Progressive moment in the US during the twentieth century.

This movement was less than successful because in the US recall elections are prohibited in the federal system. Recall is a political device designed to enable voters dissatisfied with an elected official to replace him before the expiry of his term of office. The concept originated in Switzerland but became operative in several American States since 1903.

American Experience

Eighteen States in the American Federation permit recall elections to remove their State Officers. In 1921, North Dakota’s Governor Lin Frazier was recalled over a dispute about state-owned industries. In 2003, the Californian Governor, Gray Davis, was recalled over mismanagement of the Stage budget. In many of these States, the petition for recall must identify some form of malfeasance or misconduct while in office. The minimum number of signatures of voters and time limit to qualify a recall varies between States.

Quite often, a recall triggers a simultaneous special election, where the vote on the recall and the replacement — recall succeed — are on the same ballet. In 1988, there was a successful petition-drive to recall the Arizona Governor. But before the completion of the process, he was impeached and removed from the Office by the Senate.

Recall in Canada

Canadian provinces have been effective using the device of recall to infuse discipline in the representatives. The Canadian province of British Columbia enacted representative recall in 1995. The voters in that province can petition the Government to have a sitting representative removed from office.

Even a Premier presently leading a Government can be removed from office if enough registered voters signed the petition.

A by-election will follow. In January 2003, a record 22 recall efforts were launched.

Venezuelan Constitution

The 1999 Constitution of Venezuela enables a recall of any elected representative including the President. Article 72 of the Constitution declares that all offices filled by popular vote are subject to revocation. When half the term of the office has elapsed, voters representing at least 20 per cent of the registered voters in the constituency may petition for the calling of a referendum to revoke the mandate of the official.

When the number of voters equals to or is greater than the number of those who elected the representative vote in favour of the recall, the representative’s mandate shall be deemed to have been revoked. Action will be taken to fill the permanent vacancy as per the Constitution. The provision for recall was successfully utilised in 2004.

Switzerland model

Switzerland is often cited as the strongest example of modern direct democracy. It has put to use the initiative and the referendum at both local and federal levels. Initiatives are proposals, drafted by a citizen or group of citizens that by virtue of attaining a requisite member of signatures on a petition, are put to the electorate for acceptance or rejection. However, the populace showed its conservative nature, approving only about 10 per cent of the initiatives put before them. Recall is not much in use in Switzerland.

Flawed system

The National Commission correctly identified the main cause and source of political decay in India as the ineptness of the electoral process, which has not been able to keep out criminal, anti-social and undesirable elements from participating in and even dominating the political scene and polluting the electoral and parliamentary processes.

A Constitution, however lofty its exhortations and sentiments, is not a self-executing document. The present system by which the voters are allowed to assert their sovereignty only once in five years is woefully flawed.

Democracy can be made more vibrant by implementing the suggestion of Mr Somnath Chatterjee and providing for the right to recall errant representatives. This may still put the fear of God in the elected representatives.

(The author is a former Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax.)