Candidature
Should Not Be Given To A Person With Criminal Background: Hon’ble Governor of
Maharashtra
Mumbai,
25 October 2018: In order to curb criminalisation in
elections, Political Parties should make a commitment towards not fielding
candidates with a criminal background, appealed Hon’ble Governor of
Maharashtra, Shri. CH. Vidyasagar Rao.
The Hon’ble Governor told this while
speaking in the Inaugural Session of the International Conference on “Better
Elections for Healthier Democracy” organised by State Election Commission,
Maharashtra. This conference was organised to celebrate the 25 years of 73rd
& 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India. Also present in
the session: Minister
of Rural Development, Women and Child Welfare, Smt. Pankaja Munde, Leader of the Opposition, Maharashtra
Legislative Assembly, Shri. Radhakrisha Vikhe- Patil, State Election
Commissioner, Maharashtra, Shri. J.S. Saharia and Secretary, State Election
Commission, Maharashtra, Shri. Shekhar Channe.
The
Hon’ble Governor congratulated the State Election Commission, Maharashtra, for
organising this International Conference and said it was an important step
towards electoral reforms. He also said that there is a need for co-operation
of political parties to carry out these reforms. Political Parties should from
a consensus so that no tickets are given to people with criminal background.
Political parties should not just see the winning capability of the candidates
but also consider that the candidate has a clean image and does not have a
criminal background.
Poor,
People with Disabilities, etc. should be brought into the mainstream election
process. Youth are a very important part of the Democracy – and the State
Election Commission, Maharashtra should involve schools, colleges and
universities to increase participation of youth. Establish ‘Democracy Club’ and
use Social Media effectively. There has to be a ‘Digital Platform’ for exchange
of best practices and ideas with regard to elections.
Smt. Munde said that in elections, both
candidates and polling has to be transparent because in a democracy, the keys
of governance are with the citizens. There is a competition amongst political
candidates to attract voters; for the purpose of a Healthier Democracy it is essential to bifurcate the work and avoid
such things. We should also think about misuse of social media and expenditure
incurred on elections by candidates as well as compulsory voting.
Hon’ble Shri. Vikhe- Patil said that for a
strong democracy State Election Commission, Maharashtra, has to be autonomous
and independent. The state government has to always keep in mind the Supreme
Court judgement which gives complete independent status to State Election
Commissions. There has to be training facilities for new elected public
representatives to local self-governments institutes.
Shri.
Saharia while explaining the role behind organising this conference said that
it is attributed to the 25 years of 73rd and 74th
Amendments to the Constitution of India and commemorating the 150th
birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It is expected that the key and important
challenges before the local body elections can be brought through the forefront
through the medium of this conference in the international community.
Discussion on Public Ownership of Democracy, How to Check Misuse of Money
Power, Inclusiveness, How to Control Menace of Social Media, Fake News, etc.
and Role of Various Stakeholders will happen over the next two days. Also, an
effort will be made to discuss on the underlying issues that are highly
important and provide gravity to the elections at the Local Self-Government
level.
In addition there were various election
authorities for different democratic countries present, Bangladesh, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Bhutan, Sri Lanka. While there were representatives of International
IDEA, Sweden and Commonwealth Local Self-Government Forum, U.K.
