Hegde wants electoral reforms debate similar to Lokpal

Bangalore, Oct 17: Team Anna member Santosh Hegde today (Oct 17) called for a wide debate on electoral reforms, similar to the Lokpal Bill and said he want to know why measures like 'Right to Recall" and 'Right to Reject" won"t work in India.

“I think there should be a debate across the country. I think there should be a wide debate as is the debate taking place on Lokpal bill", the former Supreme Court Judge told PTI here in response to Chief Election Commissioner S Y Queraishi terming the clauses impractical.

“We will have to discuss why it"s not practical in our country. If it"s suited to one country, we got to find if there is a way by which you can modify it to suit the (our) country", the former Karnataka Lokayukta said.

On Quraishi"s statement that 'Right to Reject" or 'Right to Recall" would lead to destabilisation of the country, Hegde wondered how the CEC got such an impression. “I would like to know more about it", he added.

He said Team Anna would have no difficulty in discussing Quraishi"s suggestion favouring appointment of the Election Commission by a collegium of people representating a cross section or political parties, rather than by the government, to improve public perception about the institution.

He said while “everybody says yes" to electoral reforms, there should be debate on how it should be done — whether it should be Right to Recall or Right to Reject (or None of the Above) or electoral funding to be taker over by the state.

PTI