Accountability is being traded with corruption, plundering and loot over public resources from central to local levels. People are disillusioned as they don´t have any control over politicians even if they are grossly underperforming and making a hash of the country in the name of democracy. People have to desperately wait for the next elections to vote them out for non-performance. Otherwise, they don´t have any instrument to penalize these elected representatives for their unaccountability, incompetence and non-delivery.
People are a sovereign lot in a democracy. Therefore, in a well-governed system, relationship and checks and balances between parties and people are clearly defined. Through elections, they only delegate – for a limited period – the task of governing them to a particular party or a few parties. In fact, political parties do not come to power, they only assume office; parties do not rule, they only serve. But our politicians do not seem to understand this universal concept of democracy. The fallout: Political accountability is at the lowest ebb.
Without "downward" accountability, democracy doesn´t function and deliver as expected. Nepal has been exercising parliamentary democracy since 1990s. But the lack of accountability has led our power-savvy politicians to renege on electoral promises, jeopardizing their own popular base. People´s frustration over decay of democratic values is at an all-time high. Now the question that has arisen is: How to get rid of these corrupt and inefficient politicians? What would be the best democratic tool to deal with this vicious cycle of political recklessness, incompetence and unaccountability? As an in-built democratic mechanism, some advanced democracies have exercised "recalling rights", which gives their citizens the power to punish elected representatives and hold them accountable for their misdeeds.
The right to recall is a democratic right that bestows the reins over elected representatives in the hands of people even beyond elections. It actually deters politicians from indulging in corruption, abuse of power and underperformance. As a tool to hold elected representatives accountable to the voters, it has become a popular democratic right in some countries. It has far-reaching potential to reform political system by putting elected representatives under direct public scrutiny based on democratic principles of either you perform or perish.
The provision of right to recall is necessary because, as of now, our elected representatives at all levels are under the impression that they have immunity from all crimes and can do anything they wish from selling diplomatic passports to misusing state coffers.
Some countries, either legally or constitutionally, have recognized this as a fundamental democratic right. The right to recall is a critical tool that deepens the concept of direct democracy. Recall is a process designed to enable voters dissatisfied with an elected official to replace him before the expiry of his/her term of office. The recall mechanism provides a way for citizens to retain control over elected officials who are not representing the best interests of their constituents, or who are unaccountable or ineffectual. This view holds that an elected representative is an agent, a servant and not a master.
It is a system wherein voters can de-elect or unseat their elected representatives. Through an electoral procedure, this power of removal, legally or constitutionally, is either granted to or reserved by people. Recall, as an instrument of direct democracy, reflects the theory that representatives are merely delegates of electors, morally bound by preferences of the constituents. With the recall provision, security of a representative´s position is subject to constituency approval. Thus, the right to recall is being practiced by some democracies around the world to ensure that people are truly sovereign and powerful.
GLOBAL EXPERIENCES
The concept first originated in Switzerland and became operative in several US states since 1903. Eighteen US states today allow recall rights of the state officials. Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin have separate recall laws whereas other nine states like New Jersey have constitutional provisions for recall. California since 1903 and most recently Minnesota since 1996 have guaranteed the right to recall as a fundamental democratic right.
If a petition against an elected lawmaker crosses a specified threshold number of signatures from citizens from his/her constituency—on legally verifiable charges of malfeasance, to prevent misuse of the stature—a poll becomes a mandatory. If the elected representative secures less than a specified percentage of votes, usually 50 percent, in the ensuring poll, he/she is removed from office before the end of term and a fresh election is called. North Dakota´s Lynn J Frazier in 1921 was recalled over a dispute about state-owned industries and California governor Gray Davis was recalled in 2003 over mismanagement of the state´s budget. 55.4 percent of the electorate had voted to recall Davis.
In June 2008, the Municipality Act of Chhattisgarh Province in India, which gives the ´right to recall’ to its citizens, voted out three elected presidents of Rajpur, Gunderdehi and Nawagrah municipalities for their failure to live up to people´s expectations. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act also provides for the right to recall underperforming elected representatives after expiry of two-and-a-half years in office. Last April, government of Bihar amended its Right to Recall Act for local bodies giving unlimited powers to citizens in recalling their mukhiyas, village chairmen, district board chairmen and members of three-tier local bodies for their underperformance. Recall provisions are now applicable only to the local bodies in some states of India. However, debates have now begun across political and social circles to make this law applicable even to the members of the parliament.
Ms Palavika Patel, former president of Anuppur municipality in Madhya Pradesh and Gray Davis, a former governor of California, are two distinct fallouts of participatory democracy. In 2002, voters of extremely poor Anuppur and in 2003, voters of extremely rich California successfully exercised a similar constitutional right: The right to recall an elected representative for non-performance.
British Columbia, a western most province of Canada, enacted the right to recall law in 1995. The voters in that province can petition the government to have a sitting representative removed from office. Even a premier leading a government can be removed from office if enough registered voters sign the petition. In case of the petition, the speaker of the legislature announces before the House that the member has been recalled and a by-election follows as soon as possible. In January 2003 alone, a record 22 recall efforts were initiated in Canada.
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 percent of the registered voters in the constituency may petition for calling of a referendum to revoke the mandate of the official. In Uganda, a member of parliament can be recalled from office on any grounds like physical or mental incapacity, misconduct or disrepute to the office.
The main cause and source of political degeneration in Nepal today is the ineptness of our electoral and democratic processes, which have not been able to debar criminal, corrupt, immoral and selfish party-men from contesting polls and even dominating the political scene and polluting electoral and parliamentary processes. It can be corrected only by putting the voters in control. Thus, the provision of right to recall is necessary because, as of now, our elected representatives at all levels are under the impression that they have immunity from all crimes and can do anything they wish from selling diplomatic passports to misusing state coffers.
The experiences from other countries show that right to recall is people´s fundamental right that can be used to eliminate corrupt, incompetent, inefficient and dishonest legislators before their elected tenure. Current political tendencies, modus operandi and underperformance of our legislators strongly calls for the right to recall law, which is one of the important democratic rights and can be immensely useful to cleanse the polity and strengthen political and democratic accountability.
The writer is Deputy Director of Good Governance Program at Pro Public
pbhattarai2001@gmail.com
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