Team Anna meets EC for poll reforms
India Blooms News Service
New Delhi, Feb 23 (IBNS): Social activists led by veteran corruption crusader Anna Hazare met the Election Commission on Saturday, to discuss their pitch for electoral reforms such as the right for voters to reject all candidates appearing in a poll and banning of criminally convicted candidates.
Hazare, along with his close associates, nicknamed ‘Team Anna’, Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, discussed the reforms for about an hour with Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi, media reports said,
Quraishi had earlier said that the time to consider the ‘Right to Reject’ may have come, endorsing the idea backed by activists such as Hazare that has caused much discomfort among the country’s political class.
The proposal, if effected, would give voters the choice to press a button on the electronic voting machines which would say “None of the Above” if they would not like to vote for any of the candidates listed in the electronic voting machine.
Quraishi said that the prime reason behind the Election Commission giving the idea sound consideration was the fact that they were unsatisfied with the effectiveness of their crackdown on illicit poll funding.
According to the Hazare-led group of activists, the meeting on Saturday was "very useful" and the Election Commission was "very receptive" to their ideas and demands.
Former cop Kiran Bedi said that they raised the issue of inclusion of Form 49(O), under which the electorate are entitled a right to not want to vote for any of the candidates, the improvement of vote counting, and barring of candidates against whom courts have framed criminal charges.
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