Union minister for law and justice M. Veerappa Moily on Sunday stressed the need to address the crisis of confidence and reform the electoral system by cultivating a culture of fearless elections, which are inclusive and based on complete transparency, integrity and informed voting.
Dr Moily said: “if we allow the (present) trend to continue, we will need the Army to conduct elections.”
Dr Moily was speaking at the first Regional Consultation on electoral reforms in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly auditorium on Sunday. Electoral reform is a national agenda which is not restricted to any single political party. It is a mammoth task, he said adding that there will be seven rounds of regional consultations followed by a national consultation on April 2 and 3, 2011. He spelt out a fixed timeframe and said that it would take about eight months to draw a roadmap for building an electoral system that would be “ideal and a role model” for the entire world.
The law minister said that the Election Commission commands the highest respect in the country and all over the world. Nevertheless, after 60 years of grand democracy, we need to revisit the experiences we have undergone. When we become suspects, we have to resurrect the institutions and rebuild people’s faith in them, he said and went on to emphasise that elections should enjoy full credibility and respect.
Sharing his views, Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said the whole world looks at the Election Commission with awe. In the last general election, he said, we had 71 crore voters, which is more than the voters in entire Europe, Australia and Japan or the total number of voters in Africa.
Talking of electoral reforms, he said this historic moment has come 60 years after India became a republic and empasised that the EC be given more powers.
Dr Quraishi said he is in favour of banning opinion polls that can be manipulated like “paid news”. He expressed concern over the role of money power in elections and opposed door to door campaigning in the final stages of electioneering.