Brief Proceedings of the Interactive Session with Shri Om Prakash

Brief Proceedings of the Interactive Session with Shri Om Prakash Rawat, Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India on ’Electoral Integrity and Role of Money in Elections’ held on 2 June 2018 at the Conference Hall of MCCI. MCCI organised an Interactive Session with Shri Om Prakash Rawat, Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India on ’Electoral Integrity and Role of Money in Elections’ at the Chamber premises on 2 June 2018. Shri Aariz Aftab, Hon’ble Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal Home Department, Election Branch was also present and spoke on the occasion. Shri Vishal Jhajharia, Senior Vice President, MCCI in his welcome address enquired if the ‘election contest’ can be limited to fewer political parties for Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections. Also is it possible to prescribe minimum academic qualifications and age-limits of candidates for both Parliament and the State Assemblies? The EC issues a ‘Model Code of Conduct’ for political parties and candidates to follow strictly so that elections are held in a free and fair manner. But despite acceptance of the ‘Code of Conduct’ by all political parties, cases of violations have been on the rise. It is a general complaint that the party in power misuses the official machinery to further its electoral prospects. The vulgar show of money during elections is no less a serious issue. Another serious problem in India is the criminalisation of politics. Persons with criminal background continue to hold seats in the Parliament and State Assemblies. As per information available, about one-third of all winners in 16th Lok Sabha had at least one pending criminal case against them, with some having serious criminal cases. When Finance Minister announced the proposal to issue Electoral Bond with the intention to clean up political funding, analysts were optimistic about this government planning to tackle one of the most entrenched sources of corruption and illicit money in the country. But in essence, when the issue started from 01 March, Electoral Bonds appear to have taken away level of transparency. Dr. Aariz Aftab briefly noted that the topic before the Chamber is most appropriate as it is the fulcrum of the election management process. He added that the Election 1 Commission has well structured rules and laws for implementation. The core issue is that everything about the election process should be transparent. Shri Rawat said that EVM has been made an easy ‘scapegoat’ by political parties because it cannot speak and political parties need to blame someone for their defeat. In fact, India’s conduct of free and fair elections is admired all across the world. Shri Rawat added that if any voter sees anything untoward at a voting station, they can report the matter to the Election Commission for immediate action, through a video app designed for the purpose. The latitude, longitude and identity of election officials will be known to the Election Commission. The identity of the complainer will not be known to anybody. About 780 videos were received by the Commission from the Karnataka polls and it plans to roll out the video system on a national basis. Shri Rawat stated that it is creditworthy that despite such a large electorate and presence of polling stations in remote areas, the Election Commission is able to publish results in just a few hours. In 2014, Harvard University and Sydney University conducted a survey on elections held across the world. The survey found that India did well in 9 out of 11 indicators and it ended with an overall score of 59 out of 100. India’s position slipped somewhat due to its poor performance on just two indicators, namely money and media based news (including fake news and social media). The Election Commission is formulating its response on Electoral Bonds. Nothing is specified on the usage of Electoral Bonds which may only be used by political parties. The Election Commission gets audited accounts and contribution reports from political parties. The Supreme Court has stated that Election Commission cannot de-register political parties. The Election Commission is therefore focusing on de-listing of political parties rather than de-registering them. The process starts with a notice to the political party and if a suitable response is not received over a period of time, then the Election Commission is able to de-list. The Commission has already de-listed more than 1,000 political parties. 2 With regard to preponement and postponement of elections, Shri Rawat said that it is the Election Commission’s prerogative to decide when elections will be held. It can issue a notification not before 6 months of the expiry of the term. Shri Rawat said that tampering of election results is fake news as there is 100 p.c. matching of hard copy of voter slips with electronic records. Since July 2017, all elections including those in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat have used EVMs and there can be no doubt about the integrity of results due to complete matching. Criminalisation of politics is an issue of concern and in case of punishment of two years of imprisonment or more, the person should be barred from politics for life. The Election Commission has seized cash and ‘freebies’ of Rs 700 crores in Tamil Nadu and Rs 180 crores in Karnataka during the recent elections in these two states. Due to strict enforcement by Election Commission, political parties have tried giving promissory paper. The Election Commission must stay on its toes to check for manipulation and it looks at emerging trends in crime as it has to continuously respond. Shri Rawat commented on Cambridge Analytica’s recent harvesting of data, profiling behaviour of voters and targeted communication to tailor voting. Only 5 lac voters in India lost data to Cambridge Analytica. The session ended with a hearty vote of thanks offered by Shri Deepak Jalan, Past President, MCCI. Rajiv Mukerji (Deputy Secretary) 3 .

Load more