The Election Commission of India has asked the Centre to impose a minimum punishment of two years to anyone found guilty of indulging in the malaise of paid news.

Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi said during a discussion here that the Commission could only act if it was given sufficient proof. He said the Commission had set up a Media Monitoring and Media Certification Committee to keep a check on the media during elections.

He also said new guidelines had been issued for publications owned by people associated with political parties.

He said there was also a proposal to ban government-sponsored advertisements relating to its achievements at least two months before the elections.

Qureshi was speaking at a discussion on ‘Paid News’ organised by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust after the screening of the hour-long film ‘Brokering News’ by Umesh Aggarwal exposing this malaise.

The Election Commission on Monday termed as a “ticklish affair” the demand for the right to reject candidates in elections.

“We have not applied our mind to it seriously, just heard about it here and there. It is going to be a ticklish affair,” Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said.

He said the proposed right of people to reject candidates required a “bit of debate” because a situation of majority of the people rejecting all candidates also has to be considered.

“What will happen if majority of people reject all candidates? We will go for another poll? As it is, you have to balance it with the fact that people have election fatigue. How many elections shall we have?” he asked.

Quraishi said the poll authority would rather give voter education and ask them to come out in large numbers to choose a good candidate.

He said the right to recall candidates has not been on the agenda of the Commission at all.

Living up to its billing as the largest democracy, Election Commission of India has now set up an institute to train personnel from struggling democracies who are seeking its help to conduct polls.

With requests from a host of countries to train poll officials, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi and Kenya’s Election Commissioner Ken Nyaundi jointly inaugurated the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM).

The first course, for poll officials from Kenya, will begin on June 27. Besides training officials associated with elections at home and abroad, IIDEM will also run courses for mediapersons.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) will change the all-India toll-free helpline number ‘1965’, launched earlier this year for registering poll-related complaints.

The new 24×7 helpline number will now be ‘1950’, and along with UP, it will be launched across the country by the end of July.

An ECI official said that helpline number has been changed to ‘1950’ because the Commission was constituted in year 1950 (on January 25). The official said that the previous number ‘1965’ had no such historical significance for the Election Commission.

The helpline number ‘1965’ was launched by ECI before the recently Assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu and call centres were set up in these states. To register a complaint, a person had to dial the helpline number with the STD code of the area.

The ECI had given directives to take action on all complaints within a time limit. Call centres had also to inform the complainants about the action taken. The calls were recorded and the callers telephone or mobile numbers were registered for acknowledgment.

BJP leader LK Advani’s long-standing demand for a paper trail in Electronic Voting Machines to bring in more transparency in the polling process will finally be put to test.

the Election Commission unveiled Electronic Voting Machines with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) that would be put to test in simulated elections across 35 polling booths in five locations across the country on July 24.

Deputy Election Commissioners Vinod Zutshi and Alok Shukla made it clear that the machines would be tested and their use would depend a lot on the feedback from voters, poll officials and political parties. Political parties have been invited to send their representatives and polling agents when the simulated poll takes place.

EC has got two types of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited. In one system, the printer is completely sealed and inaccessible to the voter. It has a transparent window in the front. The printed ballot remains in front of the transparent window for five seconds for the voter to verify it. Then it gets cut and automatically falls into a sealed box.

In the other system, the printer is kept open. The printed ballot will get cut and fall in a tray in front of the printer. The voter will pick it up, fold it and bring it out of voting compartment and drop it in a sealed box kept in front of the presiding officer.

While the printer has a software, the EVM – like before — does not have any software. There is an interface unit connected to the ballot unit and the printer.

Election Commission Chief S Y Quraishi and other two Election Commissioners V S Sampath and H S Brahma made public their immovable properties. It is mandatory for those contesting elections to make public their assets in cash and properties. Likewise the CEC has set an example and went further and listed the source of funds. The information is available on website of the Election Commission of India (eci.nic.in).

The commissioners have not made public the jewellery and cars and securities owned by them and their spouse.

Sampath has a 436.6 sq m property in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad, which he bought in 1986 for Rs 47,009 and which is currently valued at “approximately Rs 200 lakh”. It has been given on commercial lease, and earns a rental income of Rs 7,50,000 per annum. A second property — 418.05 sq m — is in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh, with a house on it. He acquired it in 1991 for Rs 68,500, and is currently valued at Rs 95 lakh. It earns a lease rental of Rs 3,60,000 per annum. His third property is an apartment of 1,957 sq ft in Hyderabad, which is “presently vacant”.

Brahma has 40 bigha “ancestral agricultural land” in Assam currently valued at Rs 8 lakh, and an ancestral house on a 1 bigha plot, valued at Rs 5 lakh. He has also declared a house on a 1,900 sq yard plot in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, worth “Rs 380 lakh approximately”, rented out at Rs 1 lakh per month.

The Election Commission is likely to announce on March 1 the schedule for elections in five states, setting the stage for a contest which is crucial for both Congress and Left.

Sources said that Commission is considering to stagger polls in West Bengal over five phases. For Assam, a two-phase poll seems likely, while elections in Tamil Nadu may be a one-day affair. Details for Kerala and Puducherry have also been worked out, making a March 1 notification a distinct possibility.

Chief election commissioners of South Asian countries are meeting here to exchange ideas and best practices to promote electoral democracies in the region.

The two-conference, jointly organized by Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre and Foundation for Advance Management of Elections (FAME) began at Pragati Resorts, about 40 km from Hyderabad.

Except Bhutan, where the municipal elections are on, poll officials of all other South Asian countries are attending the conference, the first event of its kind.

The chief election commissioners of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are discussing the problems they face in conducting elections and the ways to promote electoral democracies, which include voter education, voter registration and the conduct of free and fair elections.

The conference is being held at the initiative of former chief election commissioners J.M. Lyngdoh, N. Gopalaswami and T.S

Krishnamurthy.

The Election Commission has issued a show cause notice to former Jharkhand chiefminister Madhu Koda for failing to lodge “true accounts” of his poll campaign and spending more than 10 times of the statutory limit during the 2009 general elections.

The Commission said it has found that Koda had made anexpenditure of about Rs 10 crore during his election campaignagainst the statutory limit of Rs 25 lakh, as stipulated underthe EC guidelines for Parliamentary polls.

The Election Commission  said it will set up an institute to train people in poll management.

Speaking at the commission’s diamond jubilee celebration, Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi said, “The work on the Indian Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) has started and it should start functioning in three months.”

He said the EC has decided to consolidate the country’s election management skills at the central institute and build a resource centre accompanied by indepth documentation for learning by both national and international practitioners of elections and related fields.