Not The Right Time To Have State Funding of Polls In India: Election Commission

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Tuesday said the time was not ripe to go for state funding of elections in the country unless "radical reforms" like de-criminalisation of politics and enactment of strong financial transparency laws for candidates and political parties.

"Many political parties have demanded state funding. We do not have direct funding of parties. There are certain in-direct benefits like free electoral rolls, free air-time on state-owned media, free space for registered offices in state capital and tax exemptions (for parties)."

"EC is of the view that state funding should not be considered unless some radical reforms are accompanied in areas such as de-criminalisation of politics in a democracy in parties, holistic electoral finance reforms, robust transparency and audit and strict legal regime for enforcement of anti-corruption laws," Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi said while inaugurating a global conference on the influence of money in politics in Delhi.

If it (reforms) is not done, Mr Zaidi said, the EC "suspects state funding will become one more additional tool, one more additional source of funds without reduction of use of illegal money in election campaign and this in a way can restrict the participation of right thinking citizens (in the polls process in the country)."

State funding of polls imply the government providing funds to parties and candidates to fight elections, replacing the existing system of ploughing in private or party funds for the job.

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The CEC called upon the political parties and the government to promptly act on reforms pending in the clean financial electoral policy domain.

"This is high time that reforms proposal on electoral finance moved by the EC and the Law Commission are processed for holistic legislative sanction on fast track. We urge all political parties to take lead to lay down regulatory regime for themselves. This will set good example before people and strengthen democracy. This is a challenge that EC alone cannot handle without involvement of political parties and all stakeholders...," he said.

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