Right to reject be included in EVMs: Team Hazare

[1]

Raising their pitch on electoral reforms, Anna Hazare and his team on Thursday demanded that 'right to reject' option be included in Electronic Voting Machines and that two Election Commissioners be given constitutional status like the Chief Election Commissioner.

During their meeting with the Election Commission, Team Anna also voiced support for barring candidates against whom a court has framed charges, from contesting elections.

Hazare, along with his close associates Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, discussed the matter for about an hour with Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi.

The Team raised issues like inclusion of form 49(O), wherein a voter can say he does not want to vote for any of the candidates, use of totalizer in the counting process and barring of candidates against whom courts have framed charges.

According to Team Anna, the meeting was 'very useful' and the Commission was 'very receptive' to their ideas and demands.

After the meeting, Hazare told reporters that 'right to reject' was 'very important' and that it would help in 'cleansing' the electoral scenario.

Bedi said there was no need for bringing the right to reject issue in Parliament as it just need an amendment in rules. "The matter is pending with the Law Ministry since 2001. What is needed is a rule amendment. It just needs a notification," Bedi told agencies.

To a question on reports about government plans to take the power from the Commission to oversee implementation of Model Code of Conduct, Hazare said it was wrong if the government was planning to do so.

"This is wrong. The Election Commission is an independent body. The government should not have any hold on the body. If there is interference, then the body will lose it power. If the government does so, then there is no point in talking about independence of the Election Commission," he said.

While the Chief Election Commissiner is constitutionally protected, Hazare said also said the two Election Commissioners should also be given the same status.