Preposterous conflict within the EC

On the specific subject of electoral roll preparation -- involving multi-layered activities -- still going unattended, when the elections are closing in on us, the EC couldn't have behaved more irresponsibly. Two and a half months of its extremely limited lead-time has been squandered on the conflicting stances taken by the chief election commissioner and the two election commissioners on the voter-list issue. The CEC is for preparing a new electoral roll while the election commissioners who are supposed to assist him hold a contrary view saying that law needs to be amended if the EC is to draw up a new list. They are for an update of the old list instead of an arduous new undertaking to have a fresh electoral roll. But the fact of the matter is, previous voter-lists were prepared without requiring any law to be amended. In the CEC's judgement, there is no legal bar to having a fresh list; but look, how a running battle of wills within such a small body as EC has denuded a very precious block of time away from the limited period available to the EC for the indispensable exercise.

Isn't there any rules of business between the CEC and his commissioners? If the answer is in the negative, then the overriding impression is, the EC doesn't deserve to be called a statutory body. We wonder, if a judicial intervention will be necessary to interpret the equations between the CEC and the commissioners in the light of the Constitution?

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No one is in any doubt that we need an authentic voter-list as the sine qua non for a free and fair general election. How obsolete and antithetical to the concept of free election the 2001 electoral roll has become is brought home by a survey conducted last year by the Washington-based organisation, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). The findings of the sample survey are: there were 64 lakh potentially erroneous names on the 2001 voters' list and that 27 lakh eligible voters might not have been registered at all.

We are not interested in the squabble over an update of the electoral roll or preparation of a new one. What the nation must have is a fully authentic and comprehensivly enfranchising voter-list for the next election. Nothing short of it will be acceptable.