Need of maintaining impartiality and autonomy of Election Commission

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners have been called by the Executive for a meeting recently.

• In the light of the recent meeting of Election commissioners with the union government, several eyes have been raised regarding the independence and autonomy of the ECI.

This brief aims to understand the key powers of EC, challenges to exercise it and step needed to assert its autonomy as a constitutional body to uphold democratic value at the helm.

What is Election Commission of India (ECI)?

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) is an autonomous and permanent constitutional body.
• It is responsible for organizing free and fair elections in the Union and States of India.
• The Constitution grants the ECI with the power of direction, superintendence, and control of elections to
  • Parliament
  • State legislatures
  • the office of President of India
  • the office of Vice-president of India
• The ECI does not deal with the elections to the urban bodies such as Municipalities and Panchayats in the states and hence, a separate State Election Commission.

What are the important functions of ECI?

• Conducting elections- It perform the following functions:
  • prepares, maintains and periodically updates the Electoral Rolls
  • supervises the nomination of candidates
  • registers political parties
  • monitors the election campaign, including the funding and exponential by candidates
• Model code of Conduct- It is a set of guidelines issued by the ECI for conduct of political parties and candidates during elections mainly with respect to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, election manifestos, processions and general conduct.
• Advisory role- To advise the President or the Governor of a State, as the case may be, on the question of disqualification of any Member of Parliament or a member of a State Legislature, respectively.

What are the shortcomings in the EC structure?

• Tenure on the will of Government: The CEC and ECs are appointed by the President of India and can only be removed by the Parliament with a two-thirds majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the grounds of proved misbehavior or incapacity. Thus, it enjoys its tenure on the will of the Government of the Day.
• Toothless: The situation of political competition in India has intensified, and political parties or actors stepped up violence. However, the election commission could not arrest this deterioration. 
• No say to curb political finance: Election commission remains ineffective to curb the political finance. The politicians during the election violating the model code of conduct and also postponed/canceled elections, if the credibility of the election commission is compromised.
• Unaddressed issues: There is a rising concern related to problems like as of voter bribery and paid news, which the ECI has not been able to address so far.
• Inefficient functioning: Several critics have raised questions about the inefficiency of the election commission in the case of not to combat black money and other illegal inducement used during the electoral process.

Where does the Constitution lack?

• The Constitution has not prescribed the qualifications of the members of the Election Commission.
• The term of the members of the Election Commission is also not defined in the constitution.
• The Constitution has not debarred the retiring election commissioners from any further appointment by the government.
• Under Representation of People’s act (1951), the Election commission has no powers to deregister the political parties.

Why distance is important between executive and ECI?

• The Election Commission functions independently from the executive branch and the commissioners maintain a distance from the government. The wide berth is maintained by the poll panel to avoid any external pressure.
• ECI’s communication with the government is commonly restricted to the law ministry, and to the home ministry for security arrangements during voting days. According to protocol, if needed, the government officers schedule meetings with the three commissioners, but the latter do not attend meetings or discussions with the administration’s officials.
• There is a need to maintain an adequate distance between the two organs of the democracy. This will ensure that elections are conducted in a free and fair manner thereby upholding the basic structure of the constitution.

Suggestions

As the role of Election Commission is vital to the democratic setup of India and uphold the basic structure of the Constitution, several steps are needed to strengthen it.

• Appointment- Tarkunde Committee (1975) suggested the use of collegium system of appointment for Election commissioners. It will reduce President’s and thus, executive choice.
• T&C: Parliament should provide for the qualifications and terms of the members of the Election Commission.
• Model code of conduct (MCC) - It is voluntary at present and it can be given a legal sanction.
• Learning from global examples- In Canada Chief electoral officer directly reports to Parliament and in USA Federal Election Commissioners are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Conclusion-

India is the largest democracy in the world, and thus, presence of strong democratic institutions will at one hand, holds public trust in democracy and on the other hand, it will act as a model for other countries to replicate.