Artificial Intelligence and Electoral Governance: Regulatory Challenges, Political Disinformation, and the Future of Electoral Integrity
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most important and disruptive innovations that influence modern election governance. AI technologies help with voter registration, improving the allocation of resources for elections, fraud detection, outreach to voters and other administrative processes. However, these same technologies also pose serious threats to the integrity, fairness and transparency of elections. Artificial intelligence has brought about political misinformation, creation of synthetic media (deepfakes), algorithmic microtargeting, and automated bot networks. These changes have altered the information environment where elections take place and created conditions for manipulation, suppression, and trust erosion. This paper conducts a doctrinal and comparative analytical framework to examine AI and electoral governance interaction. Using the primary legal sources- the legislation, the judicial decisions, and the official regulatory advisories- along with the secondary scholarship, it examines the adequacy of the existing frameworks in India and selected international jurisdictions which include the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Brazil. The study analyses India’s regulatory response comprising the advisories of the Election Commission of India in May 2024, January 2025 and October 2025; the Information Technology Act 2000 and the Intermediary Rules made under it (including the 2026 amendment on synthetically generated information); the Representation of the People Act 1951; and the Model Code of Conduct identifies continuing legal and institutional gaps, and makes recommendations for a rights-preserving, technology-agnostic regulatory architecture. Any factual and legal proposition that appears in the text is footnoted and unless otherwise stated was checked against the cited source as on 15 October 2026.
Author: Dr. Hari Ram Parihar
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225808455
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