The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, September 17, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Most parties back EC code
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 16 — In a major boost to the Election Commission on the vexed issue of the time of implementation of the model code of conduct, a majority of recognised national and state parties, including the Shiromani Akali Dal, supported the EC stand that the code should be implemented from the date of announcement of the poll schedule and not from the date of actual notification.

The Chief Election Commissioner, Dr M.S. Gill, was elated when the BJP, which had at the outset stated that it favoured the code’s implementation from the date of notification, seeing the majority of political parties siding with the Election Commission, said it was willing to reconsider its view if the gap between the poll announcement and the notification was shortened to preferably not more than two weeks.

“We would reconsider our stand on the issue if the commission decides to reduce the gap between the poll announcement and the notification,” the BJP national Secretary, Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, said at the fag-end of the four-hour meeting.

For the Election Commission the BJP consent on the issue is crucial as it leads the NDA Government at the Centre.

Only a handful of parties, including the DMK, the AGP, the MDMK, the PMK, the INLD and the Himachal Vikas Party were in the favour of implementation of the code from the date of notification.

All other parties, including major NDA constituents like the Trinamool Congress, the Samata Party, the Shiv Sena, the National Conference, the Biju Janata Dal, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Telugu Desam, favoured the code’s implementation from the date of announcement of the poll schedule.

The Congress, the CPI, the CPM, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the AIADMK, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (Secular and United) also agreed with this view.

While the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Himachal Vikas Party (HVP) maintained that the code should be implemented from the date of notification and not from the date of announcement of the poll, the SAD, in a major shift from its earlier stand, said it favoured the implementation of the code from the date of announcement.

The SAD General Secretary, Mr Balwinder Singh Bhundar, who represented his party at the meeting, suggested, that while in the case of General Election the code could be implemented from the date of announcement, it should be implemented from the date of notification in case of by-elections.

However, this suggestion was rejected by the Chief Election Commissioner on legal grounds, saying that there could not be two different yardsticks for the General Election and the byelections.

Mr Bhundar pointed out that his party’s earlier stand on the issue was based on its experience in Punjab. But said his party would be part of any decision of the commission which would help in free and fair elections across the country.

Maintaining that his party favoured implementation of the code of conduct only from the date of notification, the INLD representative, Mr Sher Singh Badshami, wanted that the Commission should keep the announcement of procurement prices of agricultural products and extension of subsidy to farmers for buying seeds and fertilisers from the purview of the code.

“If due to the model code of conduct announcement of prices for agricultural products and extension of subsidies are delayed then it would severely harm the farmers’ interest,” he said.

The Himachal Vikas Party, on the other hand, tried to impress upon the commission that since actual electioneering began only after the notification of the poll, the code should be implemented from the date of notification and not the date of announcement.

Almost all political parties wanted that the gap between the date of announcement and the notification should be reduced and ideally not more than two weeks.