Ramadoss urges Centre to implement ECI's six key electoral reforms

VILLUPURAM: PMK founder-leader S Ramadoss has welcomed the Election Commission of India's (ECI) recommendations to the Union law ministry to implement six key electoral reforms that include banning opinion polls and exit polls after the announcement of date of polls.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ramadoss urged the Union government to implement the reforms at the earliest and expressed optimism that the reforms would ensure fair polls giving equal opportunities for all candidates and political parties.
Ramadoss said chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar after assuming charge this month recommended the Union law ministry to link Aadhaar with the voters IDs, allow four qualifying dates for people above 18 years to register as voters, restrict the number of constituency from which a candidate can contest to just one, empower the commission to deregister political parties that flout rules and regulations, make it mandatory to disclose all donations above Rs 2,000 instead of present ceiling of Rs 20,000 and ban opinion polls and exit polls after the announcement of date of polls.
The PMK leader said both houses of the Parliament passed the Election Laws (amendment) Bill in December last year paving way to link Aadhaar with the voters' ID. He pointed out that the commission, which has powers to register political parties, does not have powers to deregister them.
"More than 90% of a little over 2,000 political parties in the country do not contest polls and they indulge in black money operations. It is inevitable that the commission should be given the power to deregister such political parties," Ramadoss said.
He said several officials, who retired as chief election commissioners including S Y Quraishi, have urged the Union government to ban opinion polls and exit polls.
"The Union government must implement all the six key electoral reforms of the commission. Apart from these issues, the Union government must amend the Representation of People Act, 1951 to empower the commission to deregister political parties and disqualify candidates indulging in distributing cash or gifts to the voters," said Ramadoss.