Brief overview

At the end of the last semester, the GBM received a mail from the Election Commission notifying them of a change in the election system. It stated that the elections for the post of President and General Secretary of the Students’ Union would take place in the even semester starting this year, tentatively in the month of April. Other SU elections – such as those for the posts of Hostel Representatives and Cultural Secretaries – would continue to take place in the odd semester.

The new system will see candidates contesting the elections in April. However, the elected representatives will come into power only in August. In effect, this new system introduces two interlinked changes – a preponement of elections from August to April, and a reduction in the electorate size, as final year students will not be allowed to vote.

This new system of even-semester elections has been in place in the Goa campus since its inception. The Hyderabad campus also adopted the system last year, and no problems have come up so far.

Causes of the change

‘Very often, first years are not very aware about what exactly happens and how things work on campus since they’re very new’, said an EC spokesperson. The first years, numbering more than a thousand, are not usually aware of practices on campus while voting despite being exposed to things like campaigning and debates. ‘So we felt that it was important to shift elections so that they are in a better position to elect their representatives.’

The “interaction” culture of the campus was another reason for making this change. According to the EC, interactions are a medium which are at times misused to bias first years. The new system ensures this practice is avoided. ‘As we will already have a President and a General Secretary in power at the start of the semester, we can have more formal channels of communication through which these people can inform the GBM and first years in particular about how things work on campus’.

How the new system will work

The filing of nominations and other procedures will begin tentatively right after midsems. The newly elected representatives will only assume office after the commencement of the new academic year with the current office bearers staying in power until then.

Elections in April give way to the possibility of candidates starting campaigning well before the allotted time. However the EC was confident in being able to tackle such problems with their revised set of election guidelines, which would be released to the GBM soon.

In the new system, freshers will play no part in electing the President and General Secretary who will exercise power throughout the course of their first year. ‘That was one of the toughest considerations while we were making policy decisions regarding this. We’re not taking away any kind of representation in the UC from the first years as they still get to elect their hostel representative’, said the EC, adding that it was a choice between the right to vote versus the importance of an informed vote.

How the change was made

‘The idea had been floating across batches for a long while. We started working on it properly and considering it very strongly around May last year, before the semester break’, said the EC. According to the SU Constitution, it is within the purview of the Election Commission to decide when to conduct elections. After working out a methodology on how to go about with the proposed change, the EC spoke to the Union Council and the Institute to get their views on the matter. ‘The institute was not very involved as such; it’s an entirely student related affair. They’ve seen a lot more elections and systems than we have, so we wanted to consult them and get their opinions on the matter. The Institute okayed the proposition, so we went ahead.’ The Union Council, on the other hand, had some reservations regarding the change.

The President and General Secretary of the Students’ Union were interviewed about the change, both stated that the Union Council was against the change in the election system.

According to Shivam Jindal (General Secretary), all the help that first years get on coming to campus is usually from campaigners who need votes. Of course, the SU volunteers do help, but they can only do so in a limited capacity. He said next year, there will be fewer people helping first years with timetables. ‘Right now, it’s the SU, campaigners, volunteers etc. [who help]. Next year, it’ll be only the SU helping,’ he said.

In Jindal’s opinion, another advantage of odd-semester elections is that campaigning bridges the gap between the first and third year students. SU members get to know the first years very well because they visit their rooms while campaigning. The process of campaigning also makes seniors more approachable to freshers, keeping in mind that campaigners usually undergo an attitude shift once elections are over.

Bharatharatna Puli (President) believes that the entire purpose of elections is to elect one’s own representatives. While freshers will vote for their Hostel Representatives after they come on campus, Puli feels that H-Reps aren’t really great representatives for students.

Effect on interactions

Puli further elaborated on the effect of this change on interactions, saying that elections represent the senior-junior culture on campus. Of the 1000+ first years on campus, only about 400-500 actually get to interact with seniors during department and club interactions. The others learn about the working of the campus via campaigning. This also served as a means for department/club interactions. Freshers coming on-campus to an already elected President and General Secretary wouldn’t be able to connect with them. Unless first year students have been visited by the candidates and experienced the election procedure, they won’t have a lot of respect for their elected representatives.

In response to these comments, the EC spokesman said that a large portion of the information that is shared with freshers by campaigners is factually incorrect or biased. Under even-semester elections, this will be replaced by an organized, formal medium (such as an orientation) through which the office bearers will communicate with students, specifically, first year students – reducing the scope for spread of misinformation. This will help them gain a clearer picture as to the activities and importance of various bodies on campus, rather than having to figure things out themselves. The EC also asserted that many first years felt elections were more of a hassle than a help. The formal system will help inculcate important habits in first year students, like attending GBM meets.

Effect on campaigning

When asked about how this change will affect new candidates, Jindal talked about how Practice School (PS) is a crucial period in any candidate’s political career. The two months spent in PS expose the candidate to a lot of people and give enough time to draft a concrete manifesto. In the new system, manifestos will be drafted quickly just for the purpose of winning elections. There are several students who are unsure of whether they want to stand in the elections. ‘PS clears this doubt for a lot of people’, said Jindal, quoting his own case as an example.

Puli had a similar take on the importance of PS1. In odd-semester elections, candidates could utilise a substantial summer break to work on their manifesto, to think about problems on campus, and to interact with people from other campuses. Candidates could take up new initiatives during their second year to create a bigger impact on the student body before elections. In the even-semester elections, the time candidates get to take new initiatives is limited, both in terms of quality and quantity.

The EC said this topic was brought up in talks with the institute. In those talks, most felt that the winter break was ample time to work on the manifesto. ‘They don’t have less time, they just need to start earlier.’ Responding to the idea that PS gives unparalleled exposure, he said, emphasising that today’s social media tools make it very easy to communicate with other campus’ students, and exchange ideas with a lot more than the 20-30 people you meet during PS.

An advantage of the even-semester elections that the EC brought up was that the summer break can be used to implement manifesto points, not just formulate them. The shift to even-semester elections will limit the influence of election camps on the elections, and make it more about the candidate. As voters have more experience and are more informed, they will be better able to judge candidates based on previous work, and will not be as swayed by the campaigners and campaigning tricks as much. ‘You’re voting for the person, rather than an entire set of people campaigning to you’, said the EC.

Puli added that in the odd-semester elections system, there are “fresh minds” who believe candidates. His own idea of a Jawed Habib salon wouldn’t have been a strong manifesto point in even-semester elections because the electorate wouldn’t have believed it. Giving an example, he said that if a candidate were to promise to bring Domino’s to Pilani, no one would believe him/her. In the odd-semester elections, first years would believe this. If a person with such ambitious manifesto points gets voted to power, he/she would feel motivated to work on these claims. In response, the EC emphasised that ambitious projects will garner votes irrespective of the timing of elections, as long as the projects are actually necessary, and the candidate can convince the GBM that they are feasible (through media like the Auditorium Debate).

It would be interesting to the reader to note that Domino’s has featured in the manifesto of many a winning candidate in the past.

Jindal and Puli both emphasized on how this shift will take away candidates’ time. It is possible that due to even-semester elections, candidates might spend too much time on campaigning and wouldn’t be able to allocate sufficient time to academics or other interests. Many potential candidates would back out of the race for fear of messing up their second semester.

The EC stated that it plans to conduct the elections after APOGEE, but before mid-April. That leaves students with 2-3 weeks before the comprehensive examinations, so the EC believes it shouldn’t affect the academic or extracurricular activities of the campaigners, SU volunteers, and all others involved. ‘The elections are perfectly spaced out. We’ve chosen a timeline based on everything else’, said the EC spokesman.

Some key campaigners from previous camps welcomed the new system. The fact that potential candidates have to impress first years in the odd semester before contesting the elections in April means that they would have to put in a lot of effort in terms of new initiatives and actual work. In the present system, candidates just try to “keep themselves relevant” in the second year with very few of them doing significant work. ‘There is also some stability in that SR won’t be a swing vote bank, since first years will have been around for a longer time. This will sort of decrease the rigour of campaigning. An added advantage will be that first year students will no longer be harrassed in the name of campaigning’, said Devansh, who was an active campaigner during the 2016 elections.

Effect on power dynamics within SU

The power dynamics within the SU are not expected to change drastically. Till August, the incumbent representatives will hold power. Puli conceded that power struggles might happen, and that it was fully possible that some people would disregard the authority of the current UC. ‘There may be some problems in the shifting of power,’ Jindal added, ‘the SWD might stop recognising the power of the current President and General Secretary after elections.’ Although the heads of the Institute have guaranteed that there will be no such issue, Jindal believes that the workers at SWD (who have less organised working methods) might stop recognising the power of the current SU heads. The EC dismissed this concern, stating that institute’s guarantee is sufficient to prevent any such thing.

In the even-semester elections system, the outgoing President and General Secretary can influence a large portion of the electorate. In the odd-semester elections system, this never posed a problem as the outgoing President and General Secretary were fourth years and were able to influence only their batch, most of whom would be on PS2. In the new system, a large portion of students would vote for a particular candidate if he/she had the backing of the previous leader.

The EC clearly stated that this influence will be strongly prevented in the election guidelines, which will be made available very soon. When asked about informal endorsement by incumbent leaders influencing elections, the EC spokesperson said that this comes down to the integrity of the incumbent President and General Secretary, and whether or not they want to have a fair election process. He also emphasized that the election guidelines will be comprehensive and deal with all these scenarios.

While the Union Council is not too happy about the change, they have agreed to give it a try. However, they also mentioned that if there is a drastic negative impact, they would want to shift to the old system immediately. The EC remarked that there are bound to be certain hiccups once elections are moved, perhaps some issues that nobody can predict, but these hiccups would be ironed out over a few years. ‘This change is under the mandate of the election commission, and not any other body. This is a long term change, and we expect it to stay. Just because there’s a small glitch, if we revert to the original system, that does not make sense.’

The sudden change will have an impact for sure, but after that, people will learn to live with the new systems. The culture on campus will change to suit the new systems and although it may be uncomfortable at first, things will fall into place after a few years.

Aside: Hyderabad campus

BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus shifted their elections to the even semester a year ago. This change was brought about due to three main reasons. The first of these was the importance of an informed decision regarding the selection of office bearers of the Students’ Union Council (SUC), the apex student body of the campus. The second reason for the change was that a number of ragging cases were reported where seniors entered first year hostels on the pretext of campaigning. The new system has effectively reduced such cases in the campus. The last and most important reason, according to the BITS Hyderabad EC, was to give the newly elected Students’ Union Council representatives ample time to plan and prepare for the campus’ first fest – ATMOS. While in the old system, the office bearers barely had one and a half months before the fest, in the new system, the summer break can be made use of.

While there is no method to measure the decision-making capabilities of the electorate, there have been significant improvements with respect to the latter two aspects. The number of ragging cases have gone down, and the SUC now have ample time to prepare for ATMOS.