Election Commission: Some GK some Issues

Top of Form

• Security deposit for state assembly : Gen category 10000/-, SC/ST=5,000/-
• For President /VP election :15,000/-  
• If the defeated candidate fails to secure more than one sixth of the valid votes polled in the constituency will lose his security deposit.
• If a person is convicted of any offense and sentenced to an imprisonment of 2 years or more, this will be disqualification to contest elections.
• No person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison
• Person cannot contest from more than two constituencies for a Lok Sabha election.
• Limits on election expenditure : Parliament 40 lakhs (earlier 25), State assembly 16 lakhs (earlier 10)
• If there are more than 64 candidates, you cannot use Electronic voting machine due to technical limitations.

Issues:

One candidate contesting on two seats:

• There have been several cases where a person contests election from two constituencies, and wins from both. In such a situation he vacates the seat in one of the two constituencies. 
• The consequence is that a bye-election would be required from one constituency involving avoidable labour and expenditure on the conduct of that bye-election.
• Law should be amended to provide that a person cannot contest from more than one constituency.

GOVERNMENT SPONSORED ADVERTISEMENTS

• on the eve of election, the Central and various State Governments embark on advertisement spree in the guise of providing information to the public.
• There is also the practice of putting up banners and hoardings in public places, depicting achievements of governments.
• The expenditure on such advertisements is obviously incurred from the public exchequer. It is common knowledge that the  advertisements are released with an eye on the elections, to influence the electors.

Paid News
aka
SURROGATE ADVERTISEMENTS IN PRINT MEDIA

• Certain media houses give repeated news, elaborate details about certain candidates, along with their individual photographs, election speeches and rallies: all because of financial motives. (famous case: Ashok Chavan)

Exit Polls

• First time in 2009 parliament election, EC banned opinion polls during the 48 hours before the end of the poll in case of a single-phase election. In case of a multi-phase election, there is a blanket ban on exit polls till the last round of polling is over.
• Publishing the result of opinion poll on the earlier phases, will have the potential to influence the voting pattern in the subsequent phases. 
• Similarly, the opinion polls, which are conducted during the run-up to the poll, are also likely to influence the minds of the electors. 

USE OF COMMON ELECTORAL ROLLS
AT ELECTIONS CONDUCTED BY THE ELECTION COMMISSION AND THE STATE ELECTION COMMISSIONS

• Many times, confusion among the electors because their names may be present in one roll but absent in the other, or vice versa, but also results in duplication of effort and expenditure.
• In almost all the cases, the same machinery at the field level is entrusted the job of preparing and revising rolls for both types of elections.
• Hence same electoral rolls should be used in both cases.

REGISTRATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES

• More than 650 parties are presently registered with the Election Commission, out of which only 150 or so contested in the general elections of 1998.
• Since the lay public is not aware as to how easy it is to get a political party registered with the Election Commission, probably, the motivation for the non-serious parties to get registered is to give some sort of a distorted aura of their status and standing in their localities, particularly in rural and mofussil areas. 

Negative voting, right to recall etc require a different article altogether.