EC should conduct political party elections: Lyngdoh
PTI, PANAJI | 08 October 2011 20:13 IST
Presenting a radical idea which may trigger a debate, former Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh today said that Election Commission should have a say in the organisational elections of the political parties.
According to former chief election commissioner, the party constitutions must also be in line with the Constitution of India.
"EC should take over these elections and make the matters transparent," he said.
Lyngdoh, known as a no-nonsense CEC during his tenure, also said that civil society members should be nominated as observers during the party elections.
He was here to participate in a workshop on `Role of Electoral Reforms in Good Governance', organised by International Centre Goa.
Responding to a question on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and their reliability, Lyngdoh said that "anything is `tamperable'".
"You can remove the chip and put your own chip to it. But then if you (can) do it, you are taking over entire elections," he said.
Praising the EVM makers, he said that the machine was so cheap that nobody wanted to buy it.
"Since it is cheap, there cannot be any kickbacks (in purchase process), so nobody (governments) wants to buy it," he said.
Even Bhutan is using Indian machines without any modification, he pointed out.
Lyngdoh also said that more than the `paid news', what was more worrying was the big players buying a media pie.
"There are some very big players in the media.
They have big money and they are in different newspapers and channels."
The former Chief Election Commissioner also said that the EC need not campaign to encourage youth to enrol as voters.
"We are not running a tamasha. I don't think it is the job of the EC, or any state institution."
Every patriotic honest citizen will respect Shri J.M.Lyngdoh for his fight against the corruption and the corrupt.
All his suggestions need to be taken seriously as he speaks for the betterment of the Country.
We have seen recently as to how the Government was dismissed by wrongly disqualifying Shri Mathany Saldanha.
It is time to review the powers of the speaker to ensure he is not being misused to protect a Government in Minority....and if necessary to give these powers of disqualifications of MLAs and MPs to the High Courts..