One of the main reasons of corruption in elections today is the lure of power which haunts the politicians so much that they feel no qualms of conscience in adopting any underhand method to come out successful. The Watergate Scandal in the U.S.A. is an eloquent example to testify to the fact how even the top level politicians can stoop to the lowest level in order to maintain themselves in power. Who does not remember how Adolf Hitler rode roughshod overall canons of electoral pro-priety to capture power? In India also the record of the various political parties is not clean. Corruption thrives in elections because those in the field play on the psychology of the electorate. The voters are swayed by the tall promises of the candidates to whose machinations they fall an easy prey. They are also susceptible to fall an easy prey to the adulations of the politicians due to their illiteracy. Besides, in the representative democracies today and particularly in big countries the constituencies are quite extensive obviating the possibility of corrupt practices being discovered. Anti-corruption laws are honored more in their breach than in their observance. Even the code of conduct to be observed by the parties fighting the elections becomes a dead letter in as much as it is jettisoned out of existence and thrown unscrupulously over board by the unfair politicians whose only aim is to maintain themselves in the saddle.

The politicians indulge in corruption in elections now-a-days because: