After years of wait, India is finally set to get electoral reforms.

“We want public opinion created for these reforms hopefully and it must now see light of the day,” chief election commissioner (CEC) S Y Quraishi said in New Delhi on Friday.

National level consultation on the issue will be ushered in April next year even as seven ongoing regional level ones will close in February.

“The law ministry is serious on this issue,” Quraishi said at the Aspen Institute conference ‘Ideas India 2010’. “Time has come to seriously consider electoral reforms in the country,” he said.  

“The committee will take into account the opinions of political leaders, government servants, legal experts, NGOs, scholars, academics, journalists, and other stakeholders,” the background paper on the electoral reforms say.

Talking about the menace of the paid news, the CEC said, “86 notices for the paid news have been issued. We are unanimous on correcting the paid news.”

The background paper also discusses paid news which, according to the election commission, is contributing to trust deficit with regard to the elections.  “This needs to be stemmed at the earliest and in a clear and transparent manner to regain the trust of the citizens in our democratic process,” said the paper.

The reforms will include the issues like – ‘funds raised and spent in election campaigns, enforcement of the disclosure of criminal antecedents of candidates, and eligibility restrictions for candidates with criminal cases pending against them, financing of elections, the role of political parties in the electoral system: proliferation of non-serious parties; process of recognition and de-recognition of political parties; disclosure of assets and liabilities of parties; and audit and publishing of assets and liabilities.’

The suggestions for the electoral reforms are at the law ministry website. February 6, 2010 is the last date to send suggestion for reforms. Additional solicitor general Vivek K. Tankha heads the nine-member core committee collating and evaluating these suggestions. The committee has prepared a background paper, which will form the basis of the discussions in the regional and national level.

The CEC, however, maintained that the commission's hands were tied when it came to dregistering parties and asked for the mandate. “Give us power to deregister them. There are 1,100 parties in India and we don’t have power to deregister any,” he said.

However, the election commission is not in the favour of internet voting in India. “There is no need for internet voting in India. Absolutely no- no for internet voting,” Quraishi said in reply to a question.

The CEC also said use of technology like electronic voting machine (EVM) is good for election. “When the destination is not known, how can they tamper,” he said.