The Election Commission of India (ECI) has proposed a wide-ranging set of electoral reforms aimed at preserving the purity, integrity, and transparency of the democratic process. These suggestions address various aspects of the legal framework, election management, and the conduct of political parties.

Key Recommendations

Strengthening the Election Commission
- Constitutional Protection: Provide Election Commissioners (ECs) the same protection from removal as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). Currently, while the CEC can only be removed like a Supreme Court Judge, ECs can be removed on the CEC’s recommendation.
- ‘Charged’ Budget: Shift the Commission’s administrative expenditure from a “voted” to a “charged” expenditure on the Consolidated Fund of India to further secure its independence.
- Independent Secretariat: Establish an independent Secretariat for the ECI, similar to those of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, to insulate staff appointments and promotions from executive interference
- Rule-Making Authority: Transfer the authority to make electoral rules from the Central Government to the Election Commission
  - The present framework of The Representation of the People Act 1950 and 1951 under Section 28 and 169 respectively empowers the Central Government to make rules after consultation of the Election Commission. However, the Central Government is not bound to accept such views or recommendations of the Commission.
  - Since the Central Government is not bound to accept the views and recommendations of the Commission there are instances when rules opposed to the specific recommendations of the Commission have been framed. On several other occasions, rules framed or amended have not been in line with the recommendations of the Election Commission
    - Section 28, RPA 1950: Empowers the Central Government, after consulting the Election Commission of India (ECI), to formulate rules for the preparation, publication, and revision of electoral rolls. This led to the creation of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960
    - Section 169, RPA 1951: Grants the Central Government the power, in consultation with the ECI, to make rules for conducting elections. This forms the basis of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961
Electoral Roll Reforms
- Gender Neutrality for Service Voters: Amend the law to allow the husband of a female service voter to register in their native constituency, a facility currently only explicitly mentioned for the wives of male service voters.
- Common Electoral Rolls: Implement common electoral rolls for Parliamentary, Assembly, and local body elections to eliminate duplication of effort and voter confusion.
- Multiple Qualifying Dates: Increase the number of qualifying dates for enrollment (currently only January 1st) to include dates like July 1st. This prevents those turning 18 later in the year from having to wait nearly a year to register.
- Overseas Electors: Provide alternative voting facilities for overseas electors, such as proxy voting or electronic transmission of postal ballots
Candidate and Election Management
- De-criminalization of Politics
  - Barring Candidates with Serious Charges: Persons charged with cognisable offences shall be de-barred from contesting in the elections, at the stage when the charges are framed by the competent court provided the offence is punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is led at least 6 months prior to the election in question.
  - Bribery as a Cognizable Offense: Amend the law to make bribery in elections a cognizable offense, allowing for arrests without a warrant and increasing punishment to a minimum of two years
- False Affidavits: Increase the penalty for filing false affidavits to a minimum of two years’ imprisonment, removing the alternative of a fine, and making it a ground for disqualification.
  - The Commission proposed that the punishment under section 125A should be increased to 2 years’ imprisonment without the alternative clause of ne, and also that the offence should be included in the list of offences listed in sub-section (1) of section 8 which would attract disqualification on conviction irrespective of the term of sentence.
  - In order to provide effective deterrent against filing of false affidavit, the Commission recommended to include this offence in the list of ‘corrupt practices’ under section 123 of The Representation of the People Act, 1951.
    - Reason: Filing of false declaration about the background of the candidate undermines the very basic value of candidate disclosure, in turn affecting the right of the electors to know the antecedents of the candidate.
- Bribery as a cognisable offence: Electoral bribery should be made cognisable with minimum 2 years of imprisonment so that investigating authorities can act without first obtaining a warrant.
- Contesting from Multiple Seats: Prohibit a person from contesting from more than one constituency at a time. Alternatively, require winning candidates who vacate a seat to bear the cost of the subsequent bye-election.
  - When a candidate contests from two seats, it is imperative that he has to vacate one of the two seats should he win both. This, apart from the consequent unavoidable financial burden on the public exchequer and the manpower and other resources for holding bye- election against the resultant vacancy, would be an injustice to the voters of the constituency which the candidate is quitting from.
- Default on Public Dues: Disqualify candidates who have pending “public dues” related to government accommodation (e.g., electricity, water, telephone charges)
Political Party Reforms
- De-registration Powers: The Election Commission of India should be given powers to de-register a political party should be authorised to issue necessary orders regulating registration and de-registration of political parties
  - Reason for proposed amendment: Many political parties get registered, but never contest elections. Such parties exist only on paper. The possibility of forming political parties with an eye on availing the benet of income tax exemption also cannot be ruled out. It would only be logical that the Commission which has the power to register political parties is also empowered to de-register in appropriate cases
- Tax Relief: Limit income tax exemptions only to those parties that contest elections and win seats in Parliament or Legislative Assemblies.
  - Reason for proposed amendment: There could be cases where political parties could be formed merely for availing of provisions of income tax exemption if the facility, that is at the expense of the public exchequer, is provided to all political parties.
- Compulsory Auditing: Mandate that all political parties maintain audited accounts following standard ICAI guidelines and submit them annually to the ECI for public display.
- Transparency in Funding:
  - Anonymous Donations: Prohibit anonymous donations of ₹2,000 or more.
- Expenditure Caps
  - Introduce a ceiling on campaign expenditure by political parties for Parliamentary and Assembly elections
  - It should be either 50% of or not more than the expenditure ceiling limit provided for the candidate multiplied by the number of candidates of the party contesting the election.
  - Reason for proposed amendment: The limit on campaign expenditure will ensure level-playing field for all political parties and curb the menace of unaccounted money in elections. Further it will also control the money power used during elections by political parties and their allies.
- Regulation of donation coupons
  - The Election Commission proposes that political parties must register donor details for all coupons, regardless of the amount, to prevent the aggregation of untraced small donations.
  - Furthermore, following ICAI recommendations, these collections should be specifically classified and disclosed in the parties’ audited financial statements to ensure full transparency
- Extended accounting period
  - Candidates should maintain expenditure accounts from the notification of the election until the declaration of results.
Election campaign and Advertisements
- Ban on Opinion Polls: Prohibit the dissemination of Opinion Poll results from the date of the first notification until the completion of all poll phases, similar to the existing ban on Exit Polls.
- Government-Sponsored Advertisements: Ban government-funded advertisements highlighting achievements for six months prior to the expiry of the term of the House and in case of premature dissolution, the date of dissolution of the House to prevent the ruling party from gaining an undue advantage.
  - Reasons for proposed amendment: The advertisements highlighting the achievements made by the government are understandably incurred from the public exchequer and are given or created with a view to influence the electorate in favour of the ruling party.
- Paid News: Make the publishing and abetting the publishing of “paid news” an electoral offense with a minimum punishment of two years’ imprisonment.
  - Reasons for proposed amendment:The general public attaches great value in news reports as distinguished from advertisements by political parties and candidates. This makes the news items a very important source of information concerning the political parties or candidates.
    - On the contrary, paid news is masquerading as news and publishes advertisements in the garb of news items, totally misleading the electors. This raises potential concerns relating to the truth or falsity of claims and the possible defamatory effects of such news items and advertisements.
    - The right to know i.e. right to have accurate information is a necessity to make an informed choice for the electors however, paid news have a tendency to influence this choice in a negative manner.
    - To make the matter worse, the whole exercise of publishing paid news involves use of unaccounted money and under-reporting of election expenses of the candidates indulging in the malpractice.
    - The influence of money also has the potential in resulting in uneven elections between people with dissimilar financial statures. Thus, in order to have ‘fair’ elections in a democracy, a level playing field is paramount. This can only be achieved by mitigating the influence of money in elections
- Print Media Silence: Extend the 48-hour “silence period” (which currently restricts electronic media) to include advertisements in print media
  - Reasons for proposed amendment: The section 126 of The Representation of People Act, 1951 prohibits electioneering activities by way of public meetings, public performance, processions, advertisements through cinematograph, television or similar apparatus during the period of 48 hours, the time xed for conclusion of poll. The advertisements in TV and Radio are also prohibited during these 48 hours under the above mentioned provision. However, due to the existing gap in the Act, the political parties and candidates issue advertisements in the newspapers during this period including on the day of polling and also indulge in house to house visits. A distorted advertisement in print media on the poll day leaves the other candidates with no remedy to undo the damage.
Technological Updates
- Use of Totalizers: Use a totalizer to count votes from multiple EVMs simultaneously, preventing the disclosure of voting patterns in specific localities to protect voters from intimidation
  - As per the present provisions in The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, votes in the EVMs are to be counted polling station wise, which leads to situations where voting patterns in various localities/pockets become known to everyone. There is a view that this can result in victimization and/or discrimination and intimidation of electors of particular localities. This issue can be addressed by use of a totalizer that can be used for taking out the results of voting in a group of 14 EVMs without revealing the votes in individual EVMs.

Election Petitions
- Additional High Court judges
  - The Commission has proposed that appointment of additional Judges in High Courts for trying election petitions to ensure their speedy disposal should be considered.
Election Expenses
- Filing of Election Expenses by Candidates
  - RPA, 1951 should be amended such that the time period for filing of accounts is 20 days, instead of 30 days, from the date of election of the returned candidate or, if there are more than one returned candidate at the election and the dates of their election are different, the later of those two dates.
    - Current Requirement: Under Section 78 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, every contesting candidate must lodge a true copy of their election expenses with the District Election Officer within 30 days from the date of the election of the returned candidate
    - Reason for Change: Currently, the time limit for filing an election petition is 45 days. Because accounts are filed at the 30-day mark, it leaves only 15 days for interested parties to analyze the expenditure statements and decide whether to challenge the election via a petition. Reducing the filing time to 20 days provides more time for this analysis

The Election Commission’s reform proposals seek to address weaknesses across the entire electoral ecosystem—from institutional independence and electoral rolls to criminalisation, political finance, campaigning and election adjudication. Their underlying objective is to ensure a level playing field, reduce the influence of money and criminality, improve voter information and strengthen confidence in the electoral process. Meaningful reform therefore requires both greater autonomy for the ECI and stronger legal accountability of political parties, candidates and governments.

Sample Mains Question

1.Strengthening the institutional independence of the Election Commission is as important as reforming the conduct of political parties and candidates. Discuss. (250 Words, 15 Marks)

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Election Commission of India’s Proposed Electoral Reforms, 2016

Election Commission of India’s Proposed Electoral Reforms, 2016

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