By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: With an incredible voting power of 90%, Meghalaya is exceptional, said former Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla.
“While the rest of the country has around 60% voting power, Meghalaya is exceptional as here there is a possibility that a candidate can win with 50% or more votes. Whereas his or her counterpart elsewhere in the country is elected, say, with only 15% to 20% votes”, Chawla said while speaking on “Urgency of Electoral Reforms in India” organised jointly by Divya Jeevan Foundation Society and Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture in the city on Monday
During the interactive session after the speech, questions on right to recall and right to reject were also put by a social activist, which were countered by Chief Electoral Officer, P Naik.
According to Naik, the suggestion of right to recall has many difficulties associated with it and there is no guarantee that the right candidates will be elected with several candidates in the fray and money power involved. “Hence this needs to be debated extensively,” he said.
On the right to reject, he said that it is a possibility and will take it up with the competent authority. “It is possible in countries like USA with only a few candidates in the fray but in our country with multi-party elections it can be difficult. But possibilities are there,” he added.
A civil society member wanted to know about the accuracy of EVMs in election process and why the vote of Union Finance Minister PC Chidambaram had to be recounted.
On the Chidambaram issue, Chawla said that there are no irregularities as every vote that was counted and recorded on video tapes.
Earlier, Chawla said that the Election Commission of India had made a recommendation to the Centre that a candidate, who is charged by a trial court of law and was awarded punishment, should not be part of the electoral process until he is proved innocent by a higher court.
“We can only recommend as we do not have the power to enforce the suggestion . At the same time, the parties should also realize this”, Chawla said.
He also said that the Commission is concerned over use of muscle power during elections which has been addressed only to a certain extent.
Meanwhile, former MP Dr BB Dutta who also spoke on the occasion said that Northeast is the confluence of many civilizations and that this makes the region a global hotspot.