New Delhi: The Election Commission has
virtually disfavoured Team Anna's electoral reform proposals
saying its demand for 'Right to Recall' will bring instability
while 'Right to Reject' will lead to more frequent elections.
This was conveyed to Team Anna members led by Shanti
Bhushan on Monday when they met Chief Election Commissioner S
Y Quraishi and other members V S Sampath and H S Brahma to
discuss electoral reforms.
Hazare had announced in August when he called off his
fast for a strong Lokpal that his next fight will be for
implementing 'Right to Recall' and 'Right to Reject'.
During the discussions, an official statement said,
Quraishi told the delegation that Right to Recall elected
representatives would "bring instability" as the losers could
start such a campaign from day one.
On Right to Reject, the Commission was of the view that
an amendment was needed in the Representation of the People
Act 1951, a view countered by Team Anna which claims that it
can be done through an administrative order.
The statement comes in the wake of claims reportedly made
by activist Arvind Kejriwal that the Commission had accepted
their demand for making changes in rules to provide for 'Right
to Reject' option during elections.
Quraishi told Team Anna that when implemented, 'Right to
Recall would also hamper development activities because of
"frequent elections" and imposition of Model Code of Conduct
too often.
He said there were various implications involved like the
minimum percentage of voters who may file the petition for
recall, verification of authenticity of thousands of
signatures and whether those signatures have been given
voluntarily or under coercion.
Team Anna agreed that the matter needed to be further
examined by them keeping all the above implications in mind.
On the demand for 'Right to Reject', the statement said
the Commission informed the delegation that it had already
proposed to the Government in December 2001 to make a suitable
provision in the rules to introduce a button in the balloting
unit of the Electronic Voting Machine so that electors could
exercise 'none of the above' option.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 19:19