People may lose faith in poll process: Election Commission

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission ( EC) has warned that a delay in resolving the "challenges and issues" in the electoral process, including the way political parties are funded, could affect the "trust and confidence" of citizens in the electoral system.

The warning comes from Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi in a foreword written in EC's proposed electoral reforms, which has sought, among other things, bringing down the limit of accepting anonymous donations to Rs 2,000 for political parties besides giving tax exemptions to only those parties which contest assembly and parliamentary polls.

"In order to safeguard the core values of fair and free elections..., it is important to have a just and unbiased electoral process... Trust and confidence of citizens in electoral system can be affected if these challenges remain unattended," Zaidi said without mincing any words, while seeking 'expeditious' amendments to certain laws.

"The Commission sincerely believes that these suggested reforms will prove to be extremely useful in addressing the existing issues and would go a long way in enhancing the quality of democracy in India," the CEC says. The EC had released the compendium on electoral reforms on December 3.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has backed the EC proposal to cap anonymous donations to political parties at Rs 2,000. The proposed reforms seek power for EC to de-register parties as "many political parties get registered, but never contest elections. Such parties exist only on paper. It would only be logical that the Commission which has the power to register political parties is also empowered to de-register in appropriate cases".

While the EC wants anonymous donations to be capped at Rs 2,000, it says the law commission had in March 2015 backed this move and recommended that parties must disclose the details - name, address and PAN card - of donors.

It has sought monitoring of sale of coupons also.