The Election Commission is considering regulations to cancel registration of political parties, which did not contest a specific number of elections for 5 to 10 years, Chief Election Commissioner H.S. Brahma said here on Saturday.
Of the 1,600 parties only 200 participate in elections, Mr. Brahma said and the reason was not lack of funding. “Political parties enjoy certain financial benefits such as exemption from Income Tax… I think they have registered for purposes other than contesting elections,” he added.
Mr. Brahma said if the people could exert pressure on the elected representatives, then such “bogus registration” of political parties could be curbed. There were instances of parties which never took part even in a municipal or gram panchayat election.
Asked about the cases where candidates overspend not reaching the logical conclusion, Mr. Brahma said vigilance at the ground level should be improved.
“During and after elections we should finalise whether he or she [the candidate] was spending more or less … Control must be exercised during elections and not after elections,” said Mr. Brahma. He said muscle and money power affected the level playing field.
As for the EC’s initiative to seed Aadhaar card information with the electoral rolls, he said that once this was done there would not be a single duplicate voter.
