The Election Commission in India is very powerful and India was the first country in the world that introduced electronic voters’ lists in 1998, which eradicated every possibility of rigging, said former Indian chief election commissioner (CEC) Manohar Singh Gill in an exclusive interview with Pakistan Today on Tuesday.
Gill, who remained the Indian CEC for six years, is currently visiting Pakistan. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Queen’s College, Cambridge and author of the book, An Indian Success Story.
Speaking about the Indian Election Commission (IEC), he said there were two commissioners and one chief commissioner and they had all powers and security that a Supreme Court judge enjoyed. He said the Indian constitution had a separate chapter describing the functions of the IEC. Gill said the Indian CEC was appointed by the president of India for a term of six years or till the age of 65, whichever came first.
“The CEC is secure for six years and performs his duties fearlessly without any pressure from any side,” he said, adding that only the parliament could impeach the CEC, but none of the office-bearers had been impeached so far.
“The EC is responsible for holding elections of president, vice president, parliament and state assemblies,” he said. Gill was appointed the IEC in 1993 and he was appointed CEC in 1995 until 2001 and it is to his credit that he introduced electronic voters’ list that helped the government hold free and fair elections. “It was a difficult task to computerise the data of 750 million people, but we took the challenge bravely and completed the project successfully,” he said, adding that the commission faced problems in its early days but overcame them with hard efforts. “Now we have a successful list of voters, who exercise their right to vote on electronic machines. Neither the winners nor the losers of the elections have any objection on the results, as every thing is transparent,” he said. “My successors say that they are following the system I developed as it was perfect,” he opined.
Detailing about the electronic voters’ list, he said every voter (aged 18) was issued an identity card with a picture displayed over it for displaying at the voting booth. Similarly, officials of the election commission had a list with pictures of every voter with them so that any chance of rigging was obliterated. “The name and election symbol of every candidate is fed in the electronic machine and the voter just chooses the candidate and presses the button and his vote is cast. As soon election time is over, the results are compiled in a limited time and the result are final,” Gill said.
“You see, there is no chance of rigging and everyone is satisfied,” he added. He said the election commission was the appointed judicial body during elections to decide all conflicts. “We have the authority to transfer chief secretary, deputy commissioners and other officials. If we find any senior official not performing accurately, we can transfer that person,” he added.
