Just days before Chief Election Commissioner, SY Qureshi, retires from the constitutional post, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to make the appointment procedure bipartisan and transparent to enable electoral reforms.
In a letter written to Prime Minister, the senior most leader of BJP, L K Advani, has suggested a collegium that should decide the CEC. Advani has suggested that the collegiums should have Chief Justice of India, Law and Justice minister, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha with Prime Minister as the chairman of the group.
Without naming anyone in his letter, Advani pointed out that the credibility of the selection procedure was severely dented when a dubious appointment to the crucial office of CEC was made a few years ago.
“The present system whereby members to the Election Commission are appointed by the President, solely on the advice of the Prime Minister, does not evoke confidence among the people. There is a rapidly growing opinion in the country which holds that appointments to constitutional bodies like the Election Commission should be done on a bipartisan basis in order to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness,” Advani said.
