Election reforms are being discussed in the winter session of Parliament on Tuesday (9 December). In which the opposition parties are giving their displeasure and arguments regarding the current SIR process. Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has also put forward three demands from her party amid the election reform discussion. In this, he demanded to extend the time limit of SIR process in UP, among the leaders with criminal image, the leader should be held responsible instead of the party and to hold elections twice through ballot paper instead of EVM.

BSP supremo Mayawati rejected the argument of the Election Commission which said that ballot paper would take more time. Mayawati made a post this afternoon on her social media account X regarding these three demands.

‘Sir The deadline should be extended immediately.

BSP supremo Mayawati said that BSP is not against the system which is running in the entire country regarding SIR. But BSP says that in this regard, whatever process is to be done to fill the names in the voter list, the time limit set for it is very short, due to which there is a lot of pressure on the BLOs and many BLOs have even lost their lives due to the pressure of work. Where there are crores of voters, BLOs should get proper time and especially in a state where there are no elections anytime soon.

The former CM said, “There are more than 15.40 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh and if an attempt is made to complete the SIR work there in a hurry, then the result will be that many legitimate voters, especially those who are poor and have gone out for work, then their names will be left out of the voter list and they will be deprived of the constitutional right to vote given to such persons by Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.” Which would be completely unfair. Therefore, instead of rushing to complete the SIR process, appropriate time should be given, that is, the present time limit should be extended.

Stop putting the entire burden of criminal candidates on the party

He said, “Regarding his second demand, he wrote that instructions have been issued by the Election Commission as per the directions of the Supreme Court. Such people, who have any criminal history, will have to give complete details of their criminal history in their affidavit and along with this they will also have to publish the complete details in the local newspapers. And it will also be the responsibility of the political party from which they are contesting the elections to publish this information in the national newspapers as well.”

Mayawati said, “In this regard, BSP says that it has often been found that among the people who are given tickets/symbols to contest elections, some people do not disclose their criminal history to the party and in respect of some people, the party comes to know about it only at the time of scrutiny, due to which the responsibility falls on the party and anyway, the responsibility of publishing the criminal history of such candidates in the national newspapers lies with the party. It has been inserted above.”

The former Chief Minister said, “Whereas in this regard, our party’s suggestion is that the responsibility of completing all the formalities regarding candidates with criminal background should be put on them and not on the party. And if in future it is known that a candidate has hidden his criminal history, then every kind of legal action and responsibility related to it should also fall on him and not on the party.”

‘EVM But don’t trust’

On behalf of the BSP, Mayawati once again raised the issue of EVM prominently, saying, “In order to remove the complaints of frequent irregularities in EVMs which are expressed during and after the elections and to create full confidence of everyone in the election process, now instead of voting through EVMs, the process of voting through ballot papers should be implemented again and if for some reason this cannot be done now, then at least in the VVPAT box.” All the slips that fall during voting should be counted and matched with the EVM votes in all the booths.

Mayawati further said, “The reason given by the Election Commission for not doing this is that it will take a lot of time, whereas their argument is not justified at all. Because if only a few more hours are spent in counting, then it should not make any difference, whereas the election process of casting votes lasts for months. And this is also necessary because this will increase the confidence of the general public of the country in the election process and will also put a complete stop to many such doubts that arise, which is in the interest of the country. Will happen.”

However, amidst the election reform discussion, these three demands by BSP have worked as a lifeline for the opposition in putting pressure on the Election Commission and the government.

New Guidelines for EVM Bihar Elections: Preparations for Bihar assembly elections are in full swing. Even though the Election Commission has not yet announced the voting dates, but before that an important change has been implemented. This time, when voters reach to vote, they will see colorful pictures of candidates on EVM ballot. Earlier, photo black and white used to be printed on ballot paper.

The Election Commission says that this initiative is being first started from Bihar. Later it will also be implemented in other states. Under the new guideline, the picture of the candidate will be in three-fourths on the ballot paper so that voters can easily identify the face. Also, the sequence number will also be given more prominence than before. Let us know how much the Election Commission spends on installing EVMs at a booth.

EVM cost

According to the Election Commission data, the price of the ballot unit is around Rs 7991, while the price of control unit has been fixed at Rs 9812. VVPAT is more expensive than these two, which costs around Rs 16,132. Once purchased EVM machine can be used for 15 years on an average, which argues to reduce the cost of election. However, critics believe that after the election ends, it costs a lot in keeping EVMs safe and hi -tech monitoring on them.

How much is spent for EVMs at polling booth

It is not an easy task to hold elections in a huge democratic country like India. To ensure transparency and security at every booth, the Election Commission has to spend a large amount. According to the reports, only 50 to 60 thousand rupees are spent on an average on installing EVMs at one polling station and arrangements related to it. This includes the technical system of EVMs, transport, deployment of security forces and all the allowances of polling personnel.

Expenditure from Assembly to Lok Sabha

If we talk about the assembly elections, millions of booths are made in a state. In such a situation, the total cost reaches thousands of crores of rupees. At the same time, the scope of Lok Sabha elections is much larger than this. More than 1 million polling booths are set up all over the country. According to this, only the cost of thousands of crores of rupees is incurred on booths and EVM management.

The Election Commission says that this expenditure is spent for the strength of democracy and guarantee of fair election. Expenditure includes security arrangements, personnel training, facilities at polling stations and voter awareness campaigns. Experts believe that this investment is necessary for technology and transparency.

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Election Reform: US President Donald Trump has issued a new order, emphasizing the need to change the election process. In this order, to make the election process more transparent and safe, the condition of certifying their citizenship has been placed from voters. Apart from this, till the day of election, only mail-in or postal ballot ballot ballots have been said to ensure.

This order of Trump also includes a proposal to prevent non-American nationals from donating in some elections. Giving the example of electoral processes of countries like India and Brazil, he said that the US is still behind in implementing the basic standards of electoral security. According to Trump, the voter identity in India and Brazil is being linked to the biometric database, while in the US it is still completely based on self -verification.

Trump raised questions on US counting system

Trump gave an example of countries such as Germany and Canada, criticizing inconsistent methods of counting ballot in the US where paper ballots are essentially used. He said that there are many types of polling systems in the US, but many of them put the electoral process in suspicion due to lack of security measures.

Trump said to take strict steps on mail-in voting

In his order, Trump also talked about taking strict steps on mail-in voting. He cited countries like Denmark and Sweden where mail-in ballot is only for those who cannot vote personally. Apart from this, the ballot papers reached there are also not recognized. Trump said that many officers in the US are accepting ballot papers without postage stamps, which causes the possibility of disturbances in the electoral process.

Trump’s emphasis on the fairness of the electoral process

Trump described this executive order as an important step towards maintaining transparency and credibility of US elections. He reiterated his old claim of irregularities in the 2020 presidential election and said that only independent, fair and fraud -free elections can protect the constitutional republic of America. According to Trump, every American citizen has the right to ensure that their votes are counted properly and they do not have any illegal tampering.

One nation one election news: The tenure of the Joint Committee of Parliament constituted to consider the Bills proposed to conduct the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in India simultaneously has now been extended. This decision was taken on Tuesday (March 25) when the committee was entrusted with the task that it would present its report by the last week of this year.

The 39-member Joint Committee formed to consider the two Bills submitted with the objective of holding the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously- ‘Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024’ and ‘Union Territory of Law (Amendment) Bill, 2024’ now proposed to extend the tenure. The chairman of the committee and BJP MP PP Chaudhary kept this proposal in the Lok Sabha, which was approved by the House. This committee has been given time to make intensive views and final recommendations on these bills.

Deadline set for committee report

These bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17 last year and now the committee has been directed to submit the report by the first week of the upcoming monsoon session. These bills are in the direction of implementing a step under which elections of Lok Sabha and Assembly can be conducted simultaneously. Due to this, there is a possibility of saving time in the election process and better use of resources.

Committee supported under the chairmanship of former President

The proposal is based on the basis of the high-level committee constituted under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind, which supported the concept of ‘one nation-one election’. Accepting the recommendations of this committee, the Union Cabinet introduced two bills, one of which is the Constitution Amendment Bill and the other is the Union Territory of Law (Amendment) Bill.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla constituted a 39 -member joint parliamentary committee under the chairmanship of PP Chaudhary in this regard which is considering these bills. Now the committee will have to submit its report in the Lok Sabha within the stipulated time. If these bills are passed then they will indicate a major change in the election process.