‘Why is EC afraid of transparency?’: Opposition parties after Centre changes election conduct rules
The Congress said it will legally challenge the amendments to restrict public access to polls-related documents.
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Opposition parties and several social activists on Saturday stated that the Union government amending the Conduct of Election Rules to restrict public access to polls-related documents raises concerns about the role of the Election Commission.
The Congress asked why the Election Commission was “afraid” of transparency and said it would challenge the amendments in court, while the Aam Aadmi Party said the changes meant something was amiss.
As first reported by Scroll, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government on Friday amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules, which stated that “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”.
The amended version of the rule said: “All other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.”
With this change notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, in consultation with the Election Commission, not all poll-related papers can be inspected by the public. Only those papers specified in the Conduct of Election Rules can be inspected by the public.
The courts would also not be able to direct the poll panel to provide all election-related papers to the public.
This came days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on December 9 directed the Election Commission to provide videography, security...
