1.4. Contribution and Performance of Election Commission

When India adopted political equality many questions were raised about success of this experiment. Sincere and hard work of the Election Commission has played an important role in answering those critics and various steps taken by the Commission has led to further deepening

of democracy. The Election Commission has played an instrumental role in conducting free and fair elections. Some of its initiatives are as follows:

1) Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) were issued in 1993 to prevent electoral fraud. From the 2004 elections, these were made mandatory.

2) Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were introduced to improve reliability and efficiency.

3) Declaration of assets and criminal cases pending against candidates made mandatory while filing of nomination form.

4) New guidelines for broadcasting on state-owned electronic media.

5) Computerized electoral rolls.

6) Measures for better enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct.

Recently, the Commission has taken steps to check paid news, use of money power, abuse of social media etc. All these steps will further enhance people’s confidence in our parliamentary democracy.