Poll reforms: Law panel for debarring Independents

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, March 12

The Law Commission today submitted its report on electoral reforms to the Centre, recommending that Independents should be banished from the poll arena and no candidate should contest from more than one constituency as part of sweeping changes.

In the 255th report handed over to Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, law panel Chairman Justice AP Shah and its members also rejected the proposals for compulsory voting and state funding of elections. State funding was not advisable until politics was decriminalised, the report said.

The commission said it was also against granting the voters the right to recall their elected representatives as this would contribute to instability and chaos. Besides being difficult and expensive to implement this under the existing first past the post (FPTP) system, it was also prone to misuse and abuse.

The panel, however, asked the government to consider the possibility of part replacement of the FPTP system with a proportional representation (PR) method as recommended in its 170th report. It said both FPTP and PR systems came with their own merits and demerits – the first being more stable and the second being more representative. Following a hybrid pattern combining elements of both the systems would necessitate an increase in the number of seats in the Lok Sabha, the panel said.

Independents should be debarred from contesting elections because the current regime allowed a proliferation of such candidates who were mostly dummy, non-serious or namesake contestants who created more confusion among voters. In order to reduce the mounting poll expenses of candidates, the panel suggested that the period for calculating their poll outgo should be from the date of announcement of election, instead of from the day nominations opened, till the counting day.