The Election Commission of India is set to press for new electoral reforms with the government. The reforms will include making the filing of a false declaration a ground for disqualification. Also, EC will put a cap on the expenditure by parties for the legislative council polls. EC claims that the expenditure for legislative council polls should be half of what is allowed for candidates contesting assembly polls. It adds that every state should have a different expenditure limit based on its size, number of voters and assembly seats. It is also expected that EC will make bribery during the election period a cognizable offense.
The Law Ministry which is the administrative ministry for the Election Commission will be asked to decide on the demand to extend constitutional protection to the two election commissioners on the lines of the Chief Election Commissioner. The Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners are appointed by the President after the Law Ministry initiates their appointment.
A Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from the post only through impeachment by Parliament. The President, however, can remove the Election Commissioners on the recommendation of the CEC.
Another important proposal by the Election Commission is to make the electoral law gender neutral for armed forces personnel. Presently, an army man’s wife can be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman army officer’s husband cannot.
An EC official said that it depends mostly on the Parliament. He told that the bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha, EC now wants the government to pass it at the earliest.