Election panel to have five members again

NEW DELHI, NOV 22: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today said the Election Commission (EC) will be reconstituted to make it a five-me...

NEW DELHI, NOV 22: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today said the Election Commission (EC) will be reconstituted to make it a five-member body. At present, the commission is a three-member body.

Talking to mediapersons after the swearing-in-ceremony following his cabinet expansion, Vajpayee said, “We are in the process of making the Election Commission as a five-member body”.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr M S Gill, who was present at the ceremony, declined to comment on the government move. He had earlier expressed his personal opinion against such a step but had stated that under the rules, the government was free to change the number of members.

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He had also stated that he favoured a balanced multi-member body than a single-member election commission. Such a body, where every member will have equal powers, would bring stability. A larger body would entail much more wranglings and delays in decision making.

The Constitution does not give any directions about the number of members in the commission in addition to the CEC.

The EC was a single-member commission till 1989. During that year, the care-taker government of Rajiv Gandhi appointed two election commissioners – Dhanoa and Sehgal – to assist acting election commissioner Peri Shastri.

However, the successor government of V P Singh disbanded this arrangement and reverted the commission into a single-member body. During the minority P V Narasimha Rao regime, an effort was made to rein in chief election commissioner T N Seshan, by once again making it into a three-member commission through appointing former IAS officer M S Gill and G V G Krishnamurty.