The Election Commission has recommended to the Centre sweeping changes in poll laws suggesting that a person sentenced for more than six months should be debarred from contesting elections for a period ofsix years and above.
It suggested clubbing of three clauses of section eight of the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA), 1951, to remove ambiguities in this law, commission sources said yesterday.
By putting together sections 8 (1), 8 (2) and 8 (3) of the act, the commission said it would make it mandatory for a person convicted by a court of law and sentenced to imprisonment for six months or more to be debarred from contesting polls for a period totalling the sentence imposed plus an additional six years.
The recommendations for far-reaching poll reforms were contained in letters to Prime Minister I.K. Gujral by chief election commissioner M.S. Gill, recently.
The commission has urged the government to effect the necessary amendments to section eight in the winter session of Parliament since the entry of criminals into the electoral arena is something which is of grave concern to all right thinking section in the society.
As part of crucial poll reforms, the commission has urged the Prime Minister to amend the Constitution to limit the strength of the commission to three members including the chief election commissioner saying that increasing the size beyond the existing three-member body would make it unwieldy and hamper expeditious decision making for free and fair elections.
The commission has further recommended that explanation to section 77 (1) of RPA be omitted so that expenditure incurred by political parties, other bodies and associations or individuals for a candidate is also included in the account of election expenses of the contestant and comes within the prescribed limit.
A 1994 amendment inserting the explanation to section 77 (1) states that the expenditure incurred on behalf of a candidate other than himself or his election agent, shall not be deemed as expenditure.
The commission has suggested that limits of election expenses should be revised to realistic levels with Rs 15 lakh being considered as the ceiling for a standard parliamentary constituency and Rs 6 lakh for an assembly constituency. Necessary modifications in case of smaller parliamentary and assembly constituencies should be made. The power to revise the ceiling should be vested in the commission.
The EC has also recommended to the Centre to specifically empower the commission to take disciplinary action and impose suitable penalties, subject to constitutional safeguards, on erring government servants on poll duty.
