Supreme Court has done what successive governments shied away from. Selection of CEC and ECs by government was problematic. With weighty decisions on conducting elections and adjudicating disputes between parties to be made by this high constitutional office, election commissioner selection is best taken out of Executive’s hands On May 17, 2021, the Association for […]
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Why the Proposal to Have Remote Voting Machines Could Be Concealing More Than It Reveals
The proposal for remote voting for migrant resident voters (MRIs) is not new has its origins in an older proposal, to allow Non-Resident Indians to vote. There are serious issues with this. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a new initiative to introduce a ‘remote voting machine (RVM) system’ for migrant voters via its letter […]
Ballot choices crying for clean sweep of criminal taint
The apex court has asked parties and candidates to widely publicise criminal histories in local and national newspapers, as well as on social media, including Twitter and Facebook. The published material must list details of the offence, charges framed, etc. The party has to explain why the candidate was chosen despite the criminal taint. Merely […]
The charade of limits on election expenditure by candidates
The Election Commission recently mooted connecting electoral expense limits to population and inflation; but will that create a level playing field between rich and poor candidates? “Indian politicians start their legislative careers with a lie — the false spending returns they submit? – Atal Bihari Vajpayee” Achchhe din (Good days) are here for at least one category of persons in India: […]