Editorial: Internal rift puts EC under scrutiny

Dissent within the poll panel over electoral roll revision raises concerns about the functioning of a constitutional body entrusted with ensuring free and fair elections

The integrity of constitutional bodies is an essential component of a healthy democracy. Their neutrality and fairness must be above board. Unfortunately, the Election Commission, a key constitutional entity, is under a cloud because of its controversial moves, particularly on the issue of revision of electoral rolls across several States. The latest media expose, revealing how dissenting voices within the three-member poll panel were being muzzled, has put the conduct of the EC under intense scrutiny. It has now emerged that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had raised red flags all along; recorded their objections at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions taken and orders issued “without their knowledge”. Most of them pertained to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), an exercise that began in Bihar in June last year and has struck more than 13 crore names off the draft voter rolls in 30 States and Union Territories. While the poll panel has sought to make light of the media investigation, asserting that all its initiatives were an outcome of the unanimous decisions of the full Commission in the past one year, opposition parties have stepped up their demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The objections raised by the two Election Commissioners relate to the core of the poll panel’s mandate, including new voter registration, deletion and restoration of voters from the rolls, filing of appeals against orders restoring voters in the SIR process and the custody and security of the entire electoral roll itself.

The disquiet within the EC is quite unprecedented in scale, and it is particularly disquieting that a constitutional authority that is entrusted with the free and fair conduct of the nation’s elections is embroiled in such a controversy. Ironically, all three commissioners were handpicked by the NDA government and appointed under the 2023 Act by a selection panel comprising the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and the Leader of Opposition. Over the past year, the two commissioners have repeatedly questioned the restrictions being placed on the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), a statutory authority on the ground, regarding access to the voters’ list in the constituencies. Both Sandhu and Joshi had red-flagged the SIR as a “gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database” and proposed an audit to certify that “no one, except the concerned statutory authorities,” has credentials to make any change in the voter database. The dissenting note also recorded that State-level election officials were reporting that they “don’t have proper and complete access” to the ERONet portal, the digital system through which they maintain the electoral roll. Centralising digital systems erodes the EC’s traditional decentralised safeguard against rigging. It must be pointed out that the deepening internal rift does not augur well for the future of the constitutional body.