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Rajya Sabha
The Government is examining the proposals received from the Election Commission of India on the electoral reforms. The major recommendations of the Commission are : affidavits to be filed by the candidates on criminal antecedents, assets, etc; need to increase the security deposit of candidates; criminalisation of politics (disqualification from contesting election in case charges are framed); restriction on the number of seats from which one may contest; some restrictions on publishing the results of exit polls and opinion polls; prohibition of surrogate advertisements in print media; amendments in law to provide for negative/neutral voting; appointment of Appellate authority in districts against orders of Electoral Registration Officers; compulsory maintenance of accounts by political parties and audit thereof; prohibition on Government sponsored advertisements; monitoring of political advertisements on Television and Cable network; composition of Election Commission and constitutional protection of all members of the Commission and independent Secretariat for the Commission; expenses of Election Commission to be treated as ‘Charged’; ban on transfers of the Election Officers on the eve of elections; all officials appointed in connection with conduct of election to be included in clause 7 of section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951; Anti-defection law; use of common electoral rolls at elections conducted by the EC and State Election Commission; simplification of procedure for disqualification of a person found guilty of corrupt practice; same number of proposers for all contesting candidates; making of false declaration in connection with election to be an offence; rule making authority to be vested in EC; and registration and de-registration of political parties.
The Election Commission has not given any suggestion to the Government for fixing a limit of expenditure by the political parties in election.
ALM/SK
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