International Legal Landscape of Artificial Intelligence in Elections

ABSTRACT

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within democratic processes has introduced both operational efficiencies and constitutional complications that existing legal frameworks were not designed to address. In India, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has begun exploring AI-driven tools for voter verification, electoral roll management, and campaign monitoring. At the same time, political parties spent an estimated $50 million on AI-generated campaign content during the 2024 general elections, including deepfakes of deceased political figures and synthetic media depicting celebrities endorsing specific parties. These developments sit within a legal environment that is still catching up. The right to privacy, recognised as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, provides a constitutional benchmark through its four-part proportionality test. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) establishes a consent-based framework for personal data processing but contains broad state exemptions under Section 17 that could allow electoral authorities to bypass these protections entirely. The Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RPA) defines corrupt practices under Section 123 but does not contemplate AI-driven voter profiling or algorithmically generated misinformation as forms of undue influence. This dissertation examines whether Indian electoral law, in its current form, can adequately regulate the deployment of AI in elections. It investigates the statutory gaps in the RPA 1951 concerning algorithmic voter targeting, evaluates the DPDPA’s capacity to protect voter data from AI-driven manipulation, and analyses the distribution of legal liability for deepfakes and synthetic political content among AI developers, political parties, and digital intermediaries. The study proposes regulatory reforms that reconcile technological adoption with the constitutional guarantees of privacy, free and fair elections, and democratic accountability.