K'taka: CEC favours restriction on no.of parties

Bangalore, Aug 30: Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami today said there was a need to restrict the number of political parties, checking of politicisation of bureaucracy and criminalisation of politics for holding free and fair elections in the country.

Mr Gopalaswami, in his talk on election-experiences in Uttar Pradesh and other places at TERI Bangalore International Centre here said the country had 73 political parties in 1952 in comparison to 910 as of today. This was despite the EC de-recognising nearly 200 parties in 2002 for being inactive, he added.

There was a manifold increase in the registration of political parties following the income tax exemption in donating funds for them, he observed.

The EC has, so far, no reliable system to check the election expenses by the candidates despite being asked to give their accounts once in three days. It had also no control over the distribution of money and liquor during elections, he said.

Mr Gopalaswami said there was a need to look into the mass transfer of bureaucrats just prior to the announcement of elections.

In the case of UP, the government transferred 61 top officials just before the Assembly elections in January.

The Commission had proposed, as part of electoral reforms, to exclude the candidates who get chargesheeted in connection with the heinous crimes six months before contesting the elections, he said.

It had also proposed to the Centre to introduce a unique national Multi-Purpose Identity card instead of voters card. The multi-purpose card would create interest in taking part in election procedure, he said.

The card could be used as often as possible and in case of voters card, it could be used just once in five years.

The Commission experimented micro level management in conducting elections in UP and it was successful in reducing the number of re-polling from 93 in the 2002 polls to just 13 in 2007, he added.

UNI