EC powerless before partisan recruitment

One has noticed with dismay the gradual politicisation of the administration, of the police and the bureaucracy, the subtleties, in acts that cannot escape even the less than scrutinising eyes, of enhancing the service limits of the high court judges, the motives behind which may be considered less than pious.

Institutions like the Caretaker Government, perhaps the only of its kind in a parliamentary democracy came about due to the relentless struggle and demand of the people to be provided with the opportunity to elect their representatives to the parliament in a free and fair manner. Many amendments to the Constitution and existing laws were made to ensure that the pretenders of democracy did not trample the sanctity of the hallowed principle of free and fair elections. The EC is one such institution that has the sacred duty to uphold this principle. We feel that the credibility of the EC will be severely dented if those that are appointed as its officials, with the specific task of ensuring free and fair polls are themselves suspect of lacking neutrality and the CEC being unable to do anything about it.

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Nobody under the sun is apolitical. But there is a sea of difference between a politically conscious officer and one who has been an active cadre of a political party, whose appointment is designed to tinker with the very process of free election. The EC may seek shelter under technicalities and bask in the assumed detachment of his constitutional post and tout technical trivia to justify an ill-motivated action of the government, but that will not help prevent loss of public confidence in the system.

This reinforces our call for urgent electoral reforms to make the EC really independent with an independent secretariat, budget of its own and without the need to be beholden to any institution of the government or the administration.

It will be well for the CEC to remember that election is not a technical but a political process whose edifice is built on public credibility, transparency and acceptance of the system. Loss of public confidence will cause the edifice to crumble.