EC to approach govt for more power
NEWDELHI:The Election Commission of India (ECI), the poll watchdog, is making a renewed effort to get the law ministry to approve measures to give it more teeth by empowering it to deregister political parties and bar contestants from running for election to two seats, people aware of the development said.
ECI also wants the facility of casting votes through postal ballots to be extended to people engaged in essential services, including healthcare and the aviation and railway sectors, the people quoted above said. At present, only those employed by the armed forces, state police forces and government employees posted abroad, as well as those on election duty and those in preventive detention are allowed to votes through postal ballots.
Some recommendations made to help reinforce ECI’s powers have been pending for over a decade. It will raise the issue soon with the law ministry, but a date for talks is yet to be fixed.
One suggestion that has been pending for over a decade is the suggestion to make voter registration more than just an annual exercise. According to an official who didn’t want to be named, the EC has proposed that the process of allowing those who turn 18 to be included in the electoral rolls should be a quarterly exercise so that if there is a by-election, those who aren’t listed as voters on January 1 can also cast their votes.
Currently, as per section 14(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the qualifying date for eligibility for enrolment in the electoral roll of a particular year is January 1 of that year; those who turn 18, the age at which one becomes eligible to vote, after January 1 are added only when the rolls are revised the next year.
If any election takes place in between, these voters cannot cast their vote. “Since the commission wants no voter to be left behind, this amendment is required ... the law ministry suggested two qualifying dates — January and July 1, but it is yet to be implemented,” the official cited above said.
Another recommendation that was made in 2004 said candidates should not be allowed to contest more than one seat at a time.
The ECI had also suggested that if this is not accepted, then there should be an express provision in the law under which any candidate who wins two seats, resulting in a by-poll from one of the two constituencies, will have to deposit a fixed amount to meet the expenditure for holding the by-election.
Another proposal made in 2004 that will be taken up again is extending constitutional protection to all ECI members that will ensure that the two election commissioners are granted the same protection as the chief election commissioner, who cannot be removed from office except in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.
“The reason for giving protection to a chief election commissioner at par with an SC Judge was in order to ensure the independence of the Commission and insulating them from political pressure,” a former chief election commissioner said, requesting anonymity.