Chief Election Commissioner SY Quaraishi gives a thumbs down to Anna Hazare's "right to reject" and "right to recall" clauses in election rules

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has signaled thumbs down to Team Anna's proposal for the inclusion of "right to reject" and "right to recall" clauses in election rules. Chief Election Commissioner SY Quaraishi said the proposal could destabilise the political process.

The CEC's views is shared by several other experts, who see the proposal as unworkable in a multi-party democracy. In a multi-cornered context, not many candidate gets more than 50% votes. A decision to treat anything less as a rejection of the electorate would be impractical. The CEC said the right to reject, in this context, will lead to frequent elections, something that the country can ill afford. "Our main fear is that if we start rejecting all candidates, we will have another election and people already complain of election fatigue," Quraishi said.

Anna Hazare has been demanding annual performance audits of MPs, right to recall elected representatives and right to reject candidates contesting elections. In a letter to the PM, Anna had sought his views on these demands.

"There should be an option 'none of the above' in the electronic voting machine and if this option gets the maximum votes then a re-election should be ordered," Anna had said in his letter to the PM.

The PM had said that political consensus was required to act on these suggestions. "Our government is actively considering various proposals related to electoral reforms. Among the proposals being considered is the 'right to reject' which you have mentioned. In a democratic society, political consensus is necessary on some issues. We want to discuss several proposals on electoral reforms with all political parties and act on proposals on which there is broad agreement," Singh had said in a letter written on October 10.