ECI seeks more power

The Election Commission of India is undoubtedly rattled after the opposition parties got under its skin on the integrity of electronic voting machines (EVMs). The Aam Aadmi Party’s artful use of its insurgent methods on the ECI, including innuendoes against the personal integrity of some Election Commissioners, would have particularly hurt. In the mud pit of public arena where stoicism is a virtue, the ECI has let its hurt show by seeking powers under the Contempt of Courts Act. It is obvious from the sound waves generated against the ECI since the March 11 results that doubts over the integrity of EVMs, expressed in a tone a tad too shrill, have catalysed the reported letter to the Law Commission seeking the power of prosecution for contempt.

In other words, the target for the ECI’s request is immediate whereas the changes it is seeking are long term.  The ECI will not escape doubts on its ability to ensure a level-playing field in elections, especially with the rise of the social media. It should be prepared for a long slow grind, as it has currently undertaken to comprehensively win the battle of perception. The ECI still retains public goodwill for the vast improvement in the fairness of the election process. The number of deaths in each phase of polling routinely featured in headlines till the early ’90s. Booths were looted with abandon in many parts of North India. No longer. 

But elections in India are still not perfect and among other institutions, the ECI has several unfinished tasks. One of them — enhancing the legitimacy of EVMs with paper trails — was in fact initiated after the aggrieved parties, dissatisfied with the ECI's response, went to the court. And it is also a fact that the government post-haste passed the ECI’s request for more funds only after AAP raised the pitch on the slow pace of implementation of paper trails. Democracy in India still has imperfections and the ECI needs to clear the pending files on its table. One of them is the challenge to credibility posed by digital hacking. Seeking contempt powers will only increase the possibility of arbitrariness.