Election Commission of India : All You Need to Know

What is ECI?

• The Elec­tion Com­mis­sion of India is an inde­pen­dent con­sti­tu­tion­al body tasked with over­see­ing Indi­a’s fed­er­al and state elec­tion systems.
• The body is in charge of elec­tions to Indi­a’s Lok Sab­ha, Rajya Sab­ha, and State Leg­isla­tive Assem­blies, as well as the Pres­i­dent and Vice Pres­i­den­t’s posts.

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Background

1. The Indi­an con­sti­tu­tion’s Part XV deals with elec­tions and estab­lish­es a com­mis­sion to over­see them.
2. On Jan­u­ary 25, 1950, the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion was con­sti­tut­ed in con­for­mi­ty with the Constitution.
3. Arti­cles 324 to 329 of the con­sti­tu­tion deal with the com­mis­sion’s and mem­ber’s pow­ers, func­tions, tenure, eli­gi­bil­i­ty, and so on.

Articles Related to ECI

Structure of the Commission

• The com­mis­sion had only one elec­tion com­mis­sion­er at first, but the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion­er Amend­ment Act of 1989 extend­ed it to a mul­ti-mem­ber body.
• The com­mis­sion is made up of one Chief Elec­tion Com­mis­sion­er and two Elec­tion Com­mis­sion­ers.
  The sec­re­tari­at of the com­mis­sion is head­quar­tered in New Delhi.
• At the state lev­el, the Chief Elec­tion Offi­cer, who is an IAS rank offi­cer, sup­ports the elec­toral commission.
• The Pres­i­dent appoints the Chief Elec­tion Com­mis­sion­er and the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion­ers.
  They have a six-year con­tract, or until they turn 65 years old, whichev­er comes first.
• They have the same sta­tus as Supreme Court of India Judges, with the same pay and benefits.
• The Chief Elec­tion Com­mis­sion­er can be removed from office only through a process of removal sim­i­lar to that of a Supreme Court judge for by Parliament.

Procedure of Removal

• Judges of High Courts and Supreme Court, CEC, Comp­trol­ler and Audi­tor Gen­er­al (CAG) may be Removed from office through a motion adopt­ed by Par­lia­ment on grounds of ‘Proven mis­be­hav­iour or inca­pac­i­ty’.
• Removal requires spe­cial major­i­ty of 2/3rd mem­bers present and vot­ing sup­port­ed by more than 50% of the total strength of the house.
• The Con­sti­tu­tion does not use the word ‘impeach­ment’, for the removal of the judges, CAG, CEC.
• The term ‘Impeach­ment’ is only used for remov­ing the Pres­i­dent which requires the spe­cial major­i­ty of 2/3rd mem­bers of the total strength of both the hous­es which is not used elsewhere.

Functions

• Elec­tion Com­mis­sion of India super­in­ten­dents, direct and con­trol the entire process of con­duct­ing elec­tions to Par­lia­ment and Leg­is­la­ture of every State and to the offices of Pres­i­dent and Vice-Pres­i­dent of India.
• The most impor­tant func­tion of the com­mis­sion is to decide the elec­tion sched­ules for the con­duct of peri­od­ic and time­ly elec­tions, whether gen­er­al or bye-elections.
• It pre­pares elec­toral roll, issues Elec­tron­ic Pho­to Iden­ti­ty Card (EPIC).
• It decides on the loca­tion polling sta­tions, assign­ment of vot­ers to the polling sta­tions, loca­tion of count­ing cen­tres, arrange­ments to be made in and around polling sta­tions and count­ing cen­tres and all allied matters.
• It grants recog­ni­tion to polit­i­cal par­ties & allot elec­tion sym­bols to them along with set­tling dis­putes relat­ed to it.
• The Com­mis­sion also has advi­so­ry juris­dic­tion in the mat­ter of post elec­tion dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion of sit­ting mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and State Legislatures.
• It issues the Mod­el Code of Con­duct in elec­tion for polit­i­cal par­ties and can­di­dates so that the no one indulges in unfair prac­tice or there is no arbi­trary abuse of pow­ers by those in power.
• It sets lim­its of cam­paign expen­di­ture per can­di­date to all the polit­i­cal par­ties, and also mon­i­tors the same.

Importance of ECI for India

• The ECI has been suc­cess­ful­ly con­duct­ing nation­al as well as state elec­tions since 1952. In recent years, how­ev­er, the Com­mis­sion has start­ed to play the more active role to ensure greater par­tic­i­pa­tion of people.
• The Com­mis­sion had gone to the extent of dis­ci­plin­ing the polit­i­cal par­ties with a threat of dere­c­og­niz­ing if the par­ties failed in main­tain­ing inner-par­ty democracy.
• It upholds the val­ues enshrined in the Con­sti­tu­tion viz, equal­i­ty, equi­ty, impar­tial­i­ty, inde­pen­dence; and rule of law in super­in­ten­dence, direc­tion, and con­trol over the elec­toral governance.
• It con­ducts elec­tions with the high­est stan­dard of cred­i­bil­i­ty, free­ness, fair­ness, trans­paren­cy, integri­ty, account­abil­i­ty, auton­o­my and professionalism.
• It ensures par­tic­i­pa­tion of all eli­gi­ble cit­i­zens in the elec­toral process in an inclu­sive vot­er-cen­tric and vot­er-friend­ly environment.
• It engages with polit­i­cal par­ties and all stake­hold­ers in the inter­est of the elec­toral process.
• It cre­ates aware­ness about the elec­toral process and elec­toral gov­er­nance amongst stake­hold­ers name­ly, vot­ers, polit­i­cal par­ties, elec­tion func­tionar­ies, can­di­dates and peo­ple at large; and to enhance and strength­en con­fi­dence and trust in the elec­toral sys­tem of this country.

Major Challenges

• Mon­ey and crim­i­nal groups’ influ­ence in pol­i­tics has grown through­out time, cou­pled with vio­lence and elec­tion mal­prac­tices, lead­ing in the crim­i­nal­iza­tion of pol­i­tics. The ECI has been unable to halt the dete­ri­o­ra­tion of the situation.
• The state gov­ern­ment has been accused of abus­ing its pow­er by mak­ing large-scale trans­fers on the eve of elec­tions and installing pli­able offi­cials in cru­cial posi­tions, as well as using offi­cial cars and build­ings for elec­tion­eer­ing, in vio­la­tion of the ECI’s mod­el code of conduct.
• The ECI lacks the nec­es­sary resources to reg­u­late polit­i­cal par­ties. The ECI has no author­i­ty to enforce inter­nal par­ty democ­ra­cy or par­ty finance rules.
• In the recent years, an impres­sion is gain­ing ground that the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion is becom­ing less and less inde­pen­dent of the Exec­u­tive which has impact­ed the image of the institution.
• One of the major insti­tu­tion­al draw­back is non- trans­paren­cy in elec­tion of CEC and oth­er two com­mis­sion­ers and is based on the choice of pre­sid­ing government.
• There have been alle­ga­tions of EVMs mal­func­tion­ing, get­ting hacked and not reg­is­ter­ing votes which cor­rodes gen­er­al mass­es trust from the institution.

Way Forward

• The com­mis­sion’s task is to be cau­tious and watch­ful for col­lab­o­ra­tion between low­er-lev­el civ­il and police bureau­cra­cies in favour of the rul­ing par­ty of the day.
• Until the uproar over EVM faults dies down, the com­mis­sion needs to build pub­lic faith by estab­lish­ing (Vot­er Ver­i­fi­able Paper Audit Trail Sys­tem) VVPATS in a grow­ing num­ber of constituencies.
• More legal back­ing for the com­mis­sion’s man­date and the sys­tems that sup­port that man­date is required.
• Inad­e­quate lead­er­ship is the plague of our pub­lic insti­tu­tions, as his­to­ry has shown. It is crit­i­cal to have safe­guards in place to ensure that they are led by eth­i­cal and qual­i­fied individuals.
• The Prime Min­is­ter, along with the Speak­er of the Lok Sab­ha, the Leader of the Oppo­si­tion in the Lok Sab­ha, the Law Min­is­ter, and the Deputy Chair­man of the Rajya Sab­ha, should con­vene a col­legium to make rec­om­men­da­tions to the Pres­i­dent for the appoint­ment of the Chief Elec­tion Com­mis­sion­er and Elec­tion Commissioners.