Poll body head urges PM to expedite electoral reforms

The long delay on electoral reforms has deeply disappointed chief election commissioner (CEC) S Y Quraishi. He has written to Prime Minister Mammohan Singh, urging the government to expedite the process.

Some of the long-pending issues the poll body chief has been talking about include barring of candidates with criminal records, ensuring financial transparency and making public the audited accounts of candidates’ election expenses. The other idea repeatedly espoused by Quraishi is the independence of the Election Commission (EC), where its budget must be charged through the Consolidated Fund of India instead of being voted through Parliament.

The CEC, who has always been forthright in his views, has also reiterated the need to give protection to all three election commissioners so that they do not come under any pressure.

 

A national consultation on the subject of electoral reforms, which was to be held last year, is yet to take place. Ditto with an all-party consultation to discuss the matter.

Quraishi has often raised these issues in public forums and always maintained that a bar on contesting elections should be applicable to not just candidates who are convicts, but also anybody with a criminal record. This, he has maintained, would help cleanse the political space and regulate the role of money during elections.

If this proposal of Quraishi’s is implemented, a fifth of members in the present Parliament will be in trouble. A study by National Election Watch shows 150 members in the current Lok Sabha have criminal records against them.

Another issue the CEC has often raised and acted on is the blatant role in money in elections. Quraishi is of the view that candidates should be required to make public and publish audited accounts of their poll expenses.

As for Quraishi’s vision about a completely independent EC, he wants the poll body — just as the Supreme Court and the CAG — to muster funds from the Consolidated fund of India. To him, the money should not come at the mercy of Parliament.

Also, only the CEC currently — and not his two top colleagues — enjoy constitutional protection.

In Quraishi’s view, this has to be a privilege of all the three ECs, so that the entire institution enjoys immunity from outside influence. The issue assumes significance, as former CEC N Gopalaswamy had asked the government to remove his colleague Navin Chawla as EC (which was rejected). Quraishi wants to avoid such unpleasant situations in the future.