Election Commission of INDIA
Appointment & Tenure Of Election Commissioners
Election Commission of India was established in 25 Jan 1950 and is permanent constitutional body. Originally Chief Election commission was established and later on extended Chief Election Commissioner with 02 Election commissioners since 16 Oct 1989.
Since 1st Oct 1993 multi member commission has been in operation so that decision may take by majority.
The Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners are appointed by President of India for a tenure up to 06 years or up to age of 65 years whichever is earlier. The salary of Election Commissioners are equal and same as available to Judge of Supreme Court of India.
Set Up of Election commissioner
Election Commission has a Separate Secretariat at New Delhi, consisting of about550 officials. Five or Six Deputy Election Commissioners and Director Generals who are the senior officers in the Secretariat assist the Commission. They are generally appointed from the national civil service by the Commission with tenure. Directors, Principal Secretaries, and Secretaries, Under Secretaries and Deputy Secretary support the Deputy Election Commissioners and Director Generals in turn. There is functional and territorial distribution of work in the Commission. The work is organised in Divisions, Branches and Sections; each of the last mentioned units is in charge of a Section Officer. The main functional divisions are Administration,Electoral Roll, Election Expenditure Management, Information Systems, International Cooperation, Judicial, Media,Planning,Political Parties, Secretariat Co-ordination, and Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP). The territorial work is distributed among separate units responsible for different Zones into which the 36 constituent States and Union Territories of the country are grouped for convenience of management.
At the state level, the election work is supervised, subject to overall superintendence, direction and control of the Commission, by the Chief Electoral Officer of the State,
At the district and constituency levels, the District Election Officers, Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers, who are assisted by a large number of functionaries, perform election work. They all perform their functions relating to elections in addition to their other responsibilities. During election time, however, they are available to the Commission, more or less, on a full time basis.
Budget & Expenditure
There has a independent budget for the Secretariat of the Commission, which is finalised directly in consultation between the Commission and the Finance Ministry of the Union Government.
Political Parties & The Commission
Political parties are registered with the Election Commission under the law. The Commission ensures inner party democracy in their functioning by insisting upon them to hold their organizational elections at periodic intervals The Commission holds periodical consultations with the political parties on matters connected with the conduct of elections; compliance of Model Code of Conduct and new measures proposed to be introduced by the Commission on election related matters.
Media Policy
The Commission has a comprehensive policy for the media. It holds regular briefings for the mass media-print and electronic, on a regular basis, at close intervals during the election period and on specific occasions as necessary on other occasions.
The Commission with a view to reform electoral process has taken some more initiatives recently, which are given below:
1.Requirement of publishing details of candidates with pending criminal cases:
- Optional Postal Ballot facility for Absentee voters:
- Optional facility of online data entry of personal details by candidates in Nomination Form and Affidavit:
- Requirement of publishing details of candidates with criminal antecedents contesting election:
- Eco-friendly elections:
- Four qualifying dates for enrolment in the Electoral Roll:
- Free time on DD & AIR to political parties to propagate the policies.
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