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The Election commission is a permanent and an
independent body established by the Constitution of India.
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Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the
power of superintendence, direction and control of the elections to the
Parliament, State legislatures, the office of the President of India and the
office of the Vice-President of India, shall be vested in the Election
Commission.
·
The representation of the People act, 1950, deal with
the qualification of the voters, preparation of the electoral rolls,
delimitation of the Constituencies, allocation of seats in the Parliament and
the State Legislature and so on.
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The Representation of the People Rules, 1950 deals
with the preparation of the electoral rolls which was amended in 1988 and 1996.
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Representation of the People Act, 1951, deals with the
administrative machinery for conducting the election polls, election disputes,
by elections, registration of the political parties and so forth.
·
The electoral system in India is borrowed from the one
operating in Great Britain.
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The Election Commission is not concerned with the
elections to panchayats and municipalities in the States.
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The election to the panchayats and the municipalities
in the State are conducted by State Election Commissions.
·
The Election Commission presently is consisted of One
Chief election Commissioner (CEC) and two Election Commissioners.
·
By an ordinance of 1993, the powers of Election
Commissioner have been made equal to those of the Chief Election Commissioner.
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The Commission works under the overall supervision of
the Chief Election Commissioner.
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It conducts and supervises elections and by elections.
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It delimits the Constituencies for elections and
allots the number of seats to each of them.
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It fixes the election programme-dates, the number of
polling booths, and the declaration of the results.
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It advises the President or the Governor on all electoral
matters, including question relating to the disqualification of the members.
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It prepares guidelines for a code of conduct for
candidates, political parties and voters.
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It fixes the limit of election expenses and examines
the accounts of the electoral expenditures.
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It determines the criteria for recognizing political
parties and decides their election symbols.
·
It settles the election disputes and petitions
referred to it by the President or the Governor.
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The term of the Chief Election commissioner is for 6
years or till he/she attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
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He/ She can be removed from the office in the same
manner as the judges of the Supreme Court .
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He/She is not eligible for reappointment.
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He/ She cannot hold any office of profit after his/
her retirement.
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His /Her salaries and allowances are met from the
Consolidated Fund of India.
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The electoral system is based on adult-suffrage, i.e.
the citizen not less than 18 years of age and not otherwise disqualified has
the right to vote.
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It is based on the geographical representation.
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In India, election results are determined on the basis
of “first past the post” system.
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The “Indrajit Gupta Committee” to study the demand for
the State funding of Elections was set up in May 1998.
·
This 8- member committee submitted its report in
January 1999.
·
The Committee upholds the cause for introduction of
State funding which is constitutionally and legally justified which is in the
public interest.
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Do You Know?
·
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used for
the first time in 1998 in elections to the Rajasthan, MP and Delhi
Assemblies.
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In the 2004 general Elections, Electronic Voting
Machines were used for the first time throughout the country making the
elections go fully electronic.
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The Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) can record a
maximum of 3840 votes.
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Ladakh is the largest Lok Sabha Consituency
areawise.
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There were 7 national parties [INC, BJP, CPI, BSP,
CPI (M), RJD and NCP], 48 state parties and 1000 registered unrecognized
parties in 2009 General elections.
·
There were 556 women candidates in these elections
to Lok Sabha. Out of these 59 became MP.
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