The Election Commission of Indian (ECI) on Sunday expressed concern over the excessive use of illicit money by the candidates and political parties during elections, saying that the practice vitiates democracy.
The concern comes ahead of the assembly election in Gujarat later this year.
Explaining the efforts being made by the ECI to control the use of illicit money in elections, P K Dash, DG, Expenditure, ECI, said, "There is a great need to reduce the role of money in elections as it create an uneven playing field during elections. It vitiates democracy. excessive use of money power is dangerous."
Dash was here on Sunday during the launch of Gujarat Election Watch (GEW), the state chapter of National Election Watch (NEW), a conglomeration of over 1,200 civil society organisations working on political and electoral reforms.
He explained that without money multi-party democracy cannot function. He also enumerated the risk of money power which according to him included tainted governance and undetermined rule of law. There is also risk of foreign funding for political parties to destabilise the polity, and use of money for bribing of MLAs for Rajya Sabha elections, he added.
He also gave a brief outline of the new strategies in the election expenditure monitoring process which included shadow observation register, static surveillance teams, flying squads, video surveillance, capturing all media advertisement and others.
Dash, however, lamented the fact that despite of several appeals to all political parties, the candidates continue to flout election norms set by the election commission.
Chief electoral officer, Gujarat Anita Karwal, who agreed with Dash and said, "the use of money power is the main problem during elections." Karwal said that direct intelligence from the public can help counter any malpractices during elections. She further explained the slew of measures taken in Gujarat with regard to voters' registration, ensuring transparency in the dissemination of information.
Gujarat coordinator for GEW Jagdeep Chhokar said that they would be launching district level programmes in the state to from next month.