Indian General Elections 2009-Special Section
MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT
ACCOUNTS OF CANDIDATES
It is mandatory under the election law for every contesting candidate to maintain and furnish accounts of his election expenditure. Under Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 only the expenses on account of travel of ‘leaders’ of political party concerned (whose names are communicated to the Commission and the CEO of the state within the prescribed period of 7 days from the date of notification) will be exempted from being included in the account of expenses of a candidate. All other expenses –incurred/authorized by the political parties, other associations, body of persons, individuals –are required to be included in the account of the candidate.
The Commission has already issued detailed guidelines on the manner in which accounts are to be maintained and submitted by the candidates and it is incumbent upon them to maintain a daily account of expenditure and to submit it to the Designated Officer/Election Observer three times during campaign period. To strengthen the monitoring, the Commission will be taking special steps. A cell comprising of experts drawn from Income Tax Department will also be set up in the Commission to deal with information on poll expenses of the candidates.
The Commission has taken a serious note of the illegal use of money power in elections and violation of expenditure norms in various manners and has decided to track such incidents closely for follow-up action.
VOTER PARTICIPATION
The Election Commission of India in recent years has initiated various measures to streamline the process of voter registration. The Booth Level Officer system has helped in enrolling the eligible voters and in detecting and removing the names of the dead and shifted voters. The Commission hereby calls upon all the registered voters of the country to participate in the voting process and exercise their constitutional right to vote. Wider voter-participation will make the democracy in India more vibrant and deepen its roots more strongly. The Commission has directed the CEOs to take certain voter-friendly initiatives, like voter help-line, voter assistance booths near polling stations, web-based search facilities to locate the names in the voter list and so on. The Commission has also issued guidelines to the CEOs to take special measures to facilitate voting by the physically challenged voters.
The Commission recognizes and acknowledges the role of media and civil society organizations in aiding the election machinery in the successful conduct of elections. The Commission looks forwards to their total support and feedback that could help mid-course interventions.
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