New Delhi: Newspapers will be covered under ‘Silence Period’ before the voting starts, and no candidate will be allowed to contest from more than one seat will come in to force in the Indian electoral system if the government accepted the proposal of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India.
The CEC, in letter to the union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, suggested for bringing in eight electoral reforms those were pending with the government for amendment of the Representation of People Act.
CEC Sunil Arora has suggested that the print media be brought under the purview of the 48- hour silence period before voting. He has also suggested for limiting the number of seats from which a candidate can contest.
Arora has also suggested that tax exemption provision be extended to only political parties those are contesting elections.
The CEC wants that ‘paid news’ and filing false affidavits may be considered as crime under the corruption laws, and all the donations to political parties even if it is below Rs 20,000 the sources should be disclosed.
The country is bearing the cost of by election as candidate contests from more than one seat and vacate others keeping one after winning elections.
The spirit of silence period before voting get diluted as candidates continues surrogate campaign through print media.
Non-serious political parties are coming up to take advantage of tax exemption.
Similarly, political parties are collecting huge donations but show them to have collected from small doners to hide the identity of the big donors.
