Remove Criminals and Cash from Indian Elections

http://www.adrindia.org/home/index.asp
Recommendations on Electoral and Political Reforms
http://www.adrindia.org/downloads/Recommendations.pdf
Last Petition Update: Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 22:20 hrs IST







Political parties continue nominating criminal-background candidates
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/71496
Nava Thakuria

As the general election is knocking at the door and political parties keep busy declaring their candidates for different Parliamentary constituencies, an advocacy group has come out with a shocking revelation that every major party of India continues nominating candidates with criminal backgrounds.

The National Election Watch (NEW), an active polls observer group and also a campaigner for democracy and governance in India has disclosed that the oldest party of the country, Indian National Congress has nominated at least four candidates with criminal background in Uttar Pradesh.

"Out of 24 candidates (declared by INC on March 4 for UP), we found that not less than four candidates were with criminal background," informed Anil Bairwal of National Election Watch.

Speaking to this writer from New Delhi, the National Coordinator of the forum also said that the NEW looked at 24 candidates declared by INC and checked the records of these candidates with over 50,000 records accumulated since 2003.

"We found it amazing that like the BJP or SP, the Congress also named party candidates with criminal backgrounds in its list. We were able to find affidavits for 19 Congress candidates, which were filed in previous polls. Out of these 19 affidavits 4 (i.e. 21%) have criminal background," Bairwal added.

Mentionable that the NEW is a nationwide campaign comprising of more than 1200 NGO and other citizen led organizations working on electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance in India. Active in almost all States of the country, the New has been monitoring the candidates (for 2009 Lok Sabha polls) declared by political parties.

Clarifying about the criminal charges that include criminal intimidation with death threat and assaulting public servants, Bairwal also informed that the information of candidates declared by the party had been matched in the existing database of NEW which is based on affidavits filed by these candidates in earlier elections.

Commenting on the list of candidates for UP, the coordinator of NEW%u2019s UP chapter, I C Dwivedi said that the presence of politicians with criminal background has always been high in Uttar Pradesh and has reached to such an extent that both the Legislative Assembly and the Parliament are today unable to function because of these elements.

"The indiscipline in houses has reached new heights as can be seen from recent UP assembly and Parliaments sessions and we must ensure that only clean and capable candidates are elected to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies," added Dwivedi, who once served Uttar Pradesh as its police chief.

It may be mentioned that a non-political, non-partisan and a non-governmental organization titled Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) led a number of other organizations to file a PIL in the Supreme Court (in December 1999), following which the apex court of India made an order on March 13, 2003 to disclose the criminal, financial and educational background of all contesting candidates in the polls.

The ADR has since been doing the job of election watch in almost every State Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. One of the founder members of ADR, Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, who once served as the dean of IIM Ahmedabad while commenting on the issue said, "Civil Society Organisations all over the country are demanding that politics in the country should be made free from crime. The political parties should listen to public demand and stop declaring candidates with criminal backgrounds."

'There is huge awareness among people about their candidates'
http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/mar/07people-more-aware-of-candidates-antecedents.htm

Reject criminals contesting Lok Sabha polls says senior BJP leader
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200902260952.htm

Varanasi (PTI): Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Wednesday urged the public to reject the criminals contesting Lok Sabha elections, even if the political parties do not dare to do so.

"Reject the criminals contesting the Parliamentary elections, howsoever important figures they are, even if political parties do not dare to reject them. Do not spare such parties also," Joshi said here today.

Talking to media here, Joshi, however, admitted that the BJP had also done some mistakes regarding the selection of candidates for elections. "Sometimes we also commit mistake," he said when asked about the BJP's efforts for clean politics.

"But I never allowed criminal elements in politics," he added.

All political parties should think seriously to end criminalisation of politics, he said, adding that the voters should not forgive the mistakes of political parties and corrupt leaders.

The senior saffron party leader is contesting the general election from Varanasi while the BSP has fielded mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari against him.

Four candidates with criminal record on Congress%u2019 UP list
http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/05213614/Four-candidates-with-criminal.html 

As part of its National Election Watch campaign, Association for Democratic Reforms obtained the affidavits of 19 of these 24 filed in previous elections and found that four have criminal records

New Delhi: The ruling Congress party, which heads the United Progressive Alliance, or UPA, government at the Centre, has given tickets to at least four candidates with criminal backgrounds on the list of 24 candidates for Uttar Pradesh it declared on 4 March for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms, or ADR, an Ahmedabad-based non-political group.

Full House: A view of Parliament on the concluding day of the 14 Lok Sabha. The month-long general election begins on 16 April, 2009. Atul Yadav / PTI

As part of its National Election Watch campaign, ADR obtained the affidavits of 19 of these 24 filed in previous elections and found that four have criminal records.

ADR had earlier revealed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party, or SP, had candidates with criminal records on the lists they had announced on 16 February.

Out of the 92 names given out by the BJP, affidavits of 28 were available with ADR, out of which eight were found to have a criminal background.

Of the 53 names declared by the SP on the same day, ADR studied the affidavits of 24. Six candidates had criminal charges against them.

Recommendations on Electoral and Political Reforms
http://www.adrindia.org/downloads/Recommendations.pdf

Recommendations for Electoral Reforms

1. For upholding the highest traditions of probity and morality in public life, any person against whom charges have been framed by a Court of Law of serious offences like murder, attempt to murder, rape, kidnapping, extortion, etc. should not be allowed to contest elections.

2. In order to protect the identity of a voter wishing to exercise his/her right under Section 49(O), an additional button on the EVM should be there saying "None of the Above".

3. Candidates should declare their income and sources of income along with the current declaration of assets and liabilities at the time of nominations.

4. The excessive use of money in elections vitiates democracy. Anyone who breaks the law by giving money and gifts to voters, or exceeding the legal spending limits should have his/her election set aside.

5. The information given in the affidavits on criminal charges, assets etc. should be verified by an independent central authority in a time bound manner. Strong action should be taken against candidates on finding serious anomalies.

6. Clean and accurate voter rolls are the very basis for a functioning democracy. The process to keep them accurate and updated should be made completely citizen friendly. There should be only one voter list for all elections. Access to voter rolls should be made available at all times.

7. As people have the right to elect their representatives, they should also have the right to recall them.

8. The Election Commissioners should be appointed by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.

9. The Election Commissioners should not be eligible for any office after retirement for a period of 5 years. They should also not be allowed to join any political party for a period of 5 years after retirement.

Note 1: Resolutions 1 and 2 above are supported by the Election Commission of India. The EC has written to the Prime Minister with this and several other suggestions a few years ago.

Resolution 2 above emerged as the single most repeated demand across the country.

Recommendations for reform of Political Parties

1. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive Bill to regulate political parties. An excellent draft for this has already been prepared by the Law Commission. Such a Bill needs to be passed by Parliament.

2. There is a need to make it mandatory for all recognized registered political parties to have democratically elected bodies and their functioning, including their financial status, should be made transparent and known to all.

3. Since it has been made mandatory for all candidates to make their financial status public, the political parties should also be called upon to regularly file statements of their assets and liabilities, which should also be made public.

4. Political parties and candidates should declare their sources of funds well before elections so that voters can make an informed choice.

Other Issues

The illegal and unconstitutional allocation of public funds in the name of MP and MLA Local Area Development should be stopped.

Note 2: In our country there are Bills to regulate Companies, Charitable trusts, Societies, Cooperatives, Hospitals, Educational Institutions, Trade Unions, places of worship and other forms of organized activity. However there is no Bill to regulate political parties. Several other countries have such Bills. The two mains issues at this point in time are regulation of

political party and election funding and expenses, and ensuring inner party democracy.

Remove Criminals and Cash from Indian Elections

http://www.petitiononline.com/indiaadr/ 

The process of nominating criminals and spending exorbitantly on election campaigns should be stopped immediately.

It is ironic that an ordinary citizen cannot get a Government Class IV job with even a small criminal record, but one can become a Chief Minister or Cabinet Minister, with a murder charge against him. The current Lok Sabha 2004-2009 has 22.1% (120 out of 543) elected MPs with criminal records against them. The number of cases of serious criminal charges against Lok Sabha MPs is 333, with several MPs having multiple cases.

Corruption in society begins with the huge spending in elections. The Chief Election Commissioner wrote publicly that "If a candidate is willing to spend ten times more than the prescribed ceiling, it is not out of philanthropy, but in the secure knowledge that he can earn ten times what he spends once he gets to the seat of power." Therefore, exorbitant expenditure in the elections, including distributing cash, liqour, clothes, and other in-kind inducements to voters to influence their votes should be completely stopped.

Presentation: Know your right to Vote
Background on ADR and National Election Watch
Election Watch Analysis for all elections since 2003
Lok Sabha 2004: Serious criminal charges against elected MPs
Recommendations on Electoral and Political Reforms
List of MPs with pending cases (Lok Sabha 2004)

This petition's been addressed to
Hon'ble Supreme Court, Election Commission of India or ECI, Members of the Parliaments or MPs (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha), MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assemblies), MLCs (Members of the Legislative Councils) and Leaders of Political Parties.