No frivolous candidates

Bill against frivolous poll nominations passed in LS

NEW DELHI, 9 DEC: Parliament today approved legislation to discourage flippant and non-serious candidates from contesting parliamentary and state assembly elections with the Lok Sabha passing the Representation of the People (Second Amendment) Bill, 2009. The Rajya Sabha has already passed the measure.
Replying to the discussion spread over two weeks, the law minister, Mr Veerappa Moily, promised to remove remaining distortions and deficiencies in the system. The legislation bans exit polls and more than doubles the security deposit to weed candidates, who are not serious.
When notified after presidential nod, security deposit by candidates for parliamentary election will be increased to Rs 25,000 from Rs 10,000. The increased amount for SC/ST candidates will be Rs 12,500. For elections to state legislature, the security deposit will get hiked to Rs 10,000 but SC/ST candidates will have to give only Rs 5,000.
Mr Moily said nationwide consultation for setting up electoral tribunals envisaged in the Bill will begin in June-July. The endeavour would be that all election-related cases are adjudicated by the tribunals in a time-bound manner, he said. He reiterated the government stand that electronic voting machines (EVMs) are not vulnerable to any manipulation.
Mr Moily promised further discussion on powers of the EC, negative voting, state funding of elections and on the demand for one-day poll across the nation. He said state governments are lukewarm to the demand for state funding but it is under the consideration of the Central government. He also promised debate on anti-defection law to plug loopholes in the existing legislation. He said the government is open to suggestions seeking ban on use of religion and caste by political parties. The government is also ready to debate the issue of influence of money and muscle power in politics and seeks measures to curb it. The Bill incorporates 17 out of the 22 suggestions made by the Election Commission.SNS


Although we can compliment the government for one step in the right direction but it is a very small insignificant step.
One area which requires urgent action is regarding candidates standing from multiple constituencies. I know the government will not want to take action because even a prime ministers like Indira Gandhi stood from two constituecies on numerous occasions and Lalu Yadav has even stood from three constituencies.
India is a poor country and we cannot have repeated elections from the same constituency just because a person wins and resigns since he/she has also won from another seat.
In such cases, re-elections should not be held.
The candidate who polled the second most votes from the vacated constituencies should be declared winner. No re-elections.
Further, each party should declare a shadow candidate for each constituency.
In case the first candidate dies during the run-up to the polls because of some mishap, the shadow candidate should automatically stand from that seat. This is especially necessary as violence has increased tremendously during the last few elections.