EC working on curbing role of money in polls: Quraishi

NEW DELHI: Chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Friday said the EC was working on guidelines for political parties and candidates to prevent the misuse of money power to influence polls. Stating that restricting the role of money power in elections was a priority with the commission, Mr Quraishi told a news conference soon after assuming charge as CEC here that the EC had held wide discussions with its expenditure observers on checking the lavish spending on polls.

The focus of the guidelines, he said, was to strengthen checks and controls so as to prevent the misuse of money power to swing elections.

“We will come out with detailed guidelines. They are being fine-tuned. By the end of August, they would be in place. We hope we will be able to tighten our control on the use of money power,” Mr Quraishi told mediapersons.

Listing other priorities of the commission, the CEC said the panel would work to enhance the participation of voters. To a question on use of EVMs in the backdrop of the experience in Andhra Pradesh bypolls where manual voting took place in five constituencies, he said the commission was constantly working towards making EVMs absolutely fool-proof. “There seems to be no reason,” he said when asked whether the commission would give a second thought on use of EVMs.

While praising the judiciary for guarding the independence of the commission, Mr Quraishi said the Supreme Court had made the panel stronger. Replying to a question on the government’s move to give voting rights to NRIs, Mr Quraishi said though the EC favoured it, there were several logistical issues such as who could be given voting rights and whether voting could be carried out through postal ballot. He said the EC and the overseas ministry have had a few meetings in this regard.

Expressing concern over the growing syndrome of paid news, he said the commission had recently issued tougher guidelines to prevent this phenomena.