Ahmedabad (NVI): Election Commission of India is working on more reforms, which among others, involve the concept of absentee voters and more than one qualifying days for eligibility of voters.
“The electoral journey has been remarkable. Yet we cannot sit on past laurels. The Commission is committed to bring more reforms to ensure that the process become more in sync with the times,” Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said here today.
“Recently, the concept of Absentee voters has been made part of our process. We hope to have more than one qualifying dates for eligibility of voters,” he said at an event of Institute of Law, NIRMA University here.
“We have large number of overseas population and we need to devise a mechanism to facilitate their participation in the electoral process. We also need to work harder to curb the menace of money power, misinformation and to check the criminal elements in the arena of elections,” he added.
He also informed that to commemorate and celebrate the former CEC late T N Seshan’s special connect with the young and aspiring India, the ECI has decided to establish and fund a Visiting chair on interdisciplinary approach to Electoral Studies in the Centre for Curriculum Development at India international institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi from 2020-2025. The Chair will be mentored by former CEC N Gopalaswami.
Sunil Arora also said that “the roots of democracy run deep in our consciousness. So does an inherent sense of what constitutes right and wrong. Given this, I can say with conviction that the voter of this country is no longer naive, passive recipient in the play of political democracy,” he said.
-sb
