Election Commission of India

The Election Commission of India is an autonomous, established federal authority responsible for administering all the electoral processes in the Republic of India. Under the supervision of the commission, free and fair elections have been held in India at regular intervals as per the principles enshrined in the Constitution. The Election Commission has the power of superintendence, direction and control of all elections to the Parliament of India and the state legislatures and of elections to the office of the President of India and the Vice-President of India.

In April 2015, Dr. Nasim Zaidi took over as the Chief Election Commissioner of the country. Dr. Zaldi possesses a Master's degree in Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and has been a Mason Fellow for Public Policy at Harvard Institute for International Development. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Pinance from Indian Institute of Finance and holds doctorate in Bio-Chemistry. Dr. Zaidi has published several papers in scientific and administrative journals.

Powers and functions of the Election Commission:

1. Preparation of Electoral Rolls and Photo I Cards
2. Registration and recognition of political parties
3. Allotment of symbols
4. Fixing dates and conducting elections
5. Ensuring free and fair elections
6. Appointment of polling officers
7. Scrutiny of nomination papers
8. Scrutiny of election expenses
9. Advisory functions

Functions of the Election Commission:

One of the most important features of the democratic polity is elections at regular intervals. Holding periodic free and fair elections are essentials of democratic system. It is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution.[4] The Election Commission is regarded as the guardian of free and fair elections. In every election, it issues a Model code of Conduct for political parties and candidates to conduct elections in a free and fair manner. The Commission issued the code for the first time in 1971 (5th Election) and revised it from time to time. It lay down guidelines for conduct of political parties and candidates during elections. However, there are instances of violation of code by the political parties and complaints are received for misuse of official machinery by the candidates. The need for such code is in the interest of free and fair elections. However, the code does not have any specific statutory basis. It has only a persuasive effect. It contains what, known as 'rules of electoral morality'. But this lack of statutory backing does not prevent the Commission from enforcing it.

A law regarding to the registration process for political parties was enacted in 1989 and number of parties got registered with the Commission.[5] It helps to avoid confusion of the administrative machinery and the electorate and ensures that political parties are brought under the purview of the election commission.

To get rid of the growing influences and vulgar show of money during elections the Election Commission has made many suggestions in this regard. The Election Commission has fixed the legal limits on the amount of money which a candidate can spend during election campaigns. These limits have been revised from time to time. The Election Commission by appointing observers keeps an eye on the individual account of election expenditure. The contestants are also required to give details of expenditure within 30 days of declaration of results. The Election Commission reduced the campaign period from 21 to 14 days for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections to trim down election expenditure. Moreover, Election Commission takes details of the candidate's assets on affidavit at the time of submitting nomination paper. The Commission can issue an order for prohibition of publication and disseminating of results of opinion polls or exit polls.