Mangaluru: Democracy has been weakened by bribing and luring of free gifts during election to get votes opined former chief election commissioner N Gopal Swamy.

Addressing the gathering at a seminar on ‘subsidies, freebies and cash for votes- democracy in peril’ organised by Corporation Bank Officers and Balasubrahmanya Foundation on Wednesday, he said that in 1950 after adapting democracy in India, each and every individual got the right to vote during the elections, even after having only 15 per cent of educated men and 7 per cent of educated women.

“After 65 years of adapting democracy, now politicians from criminal background are electing as the people leader. Many wiles are being used by the politicians to get the votes, like gifts, subsidies, and other sources of bribes have weakened the democracy,” he said.

He further said that some years ago politicians were distributing saree’s and other little things as lure, but now it has grown up to TV, fan, grinder and money. Even the public also join hands with such things.

“The public’s thinking needs to be changed. They want money for their votes. The governments also misusing the public’s money,” he said adding that the election commission has shown its existence since past six decades. The commission helps the public to conduct the election without any fear. It has used 14 lakh electronic voting machines across 8 lakh polling booths in 2014. It has constituted a polling booth for three men at Arunachal Pradesh and for one man at Gujarath’s Gir forest region.

“The people from rural background show much interest in election than the city people,” he stated.

Corporation Bank Officers Association District President Ekanath Baliga, Secretary Satish Shetty and others were present.