ELECTION COMMISSION
- Election Commission of India was constituted on 25th January, 1950 with its headquarters at New Delhi.
- Election Commission of India (ECI) is a permanent independent constitutional body vested with the powers and responsibility of superintendence, direction and control of the entire process of conduct of elections to Parliament and to Legislatures of the States and the Union Territories and elections to the offices of President and Vice-President held under the Constitution.
- The Constitution provides for Chief Election Commissioner and one or more Election Commissioners to be appointed. The present Commission is 3-member body.
- Election Commission decides the election schedules for the conduct of elections – both general elections and bye—elections. It prepares, maintains and periodically updates the electoral rolls, supervises the nomination of candidates, registers political parties, monitors the election Campaign, including funding and expenditure of candidates.
- It also facilitates the coverage of the election process by the media, carries out the voter education and awareness measures, organizes the polling stations/ booths where voting takes place, and oversees the counting of votes and the declaration of results.
- It conducts polling through EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and recently, on pilot basis, introduced VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail).
- The Election Commission has also provided for compulsory identification at the time of voting by means of Electors‘ Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) and distribution of Photo Slip close to polls.
- Elections are conducted according to the constitutional provisions, supplemented by laws made by Parliament. The major laws are the:
- Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952;
- Representation of the People Act, 1950;
- Representation of the People Act, 1951.
- All political parties are required to get themselves registered with the Election Commission. Based on performance criteria laid down in the Elections Symbols (reservation & allotment) order 1968, the Commission grants recognition to political parties as national or state parties.
- It also decides disputes relating to splits/mergers of recognized political parties.
- At the State level, the election Work is supervised, subject to overall control of the Commission, by the Chief Electoral Officer of the State, who is appointed by the Commission by selection from amongst senior civil servants of the State Government.
- Field administration at the district and sub-divisional levels in India is run by the District Magistrates (Deputy Commissioners / Collectors), Sub-Divisional Magistrates, Revenue Divisional Officers, Tehsildars, etc.
- During the last 64 years, Commission has conducted 16 General Elections to the Lok Sabha and about 365 general elections to State Legislative Assemblies.
- The Commission celebrates 25th January, its Foundation Day, as the National Voters Day (NVD) every year.
- Election Commission of India has launched the “India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management” (IIIDEM) an advanced resource center of learning, research, training and extension for electoral democracy and election management.
- ECI has MoUs with 16 countries, besides having MoUs with UNDP, International IDEA and IFES.