With lack of transparency in the political party funding becoming the talking point in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections, newly-appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) H S Brahma on Tuesday said the Election Commission was “not competent” to deal with the issue at the moment and that only an amendment in law could empower it to step in. “The EC is not competent to deal with this at the moment. We don’t have the authority to go into the accounts of political parties. Political parties submit details about their accounts annually to the EC, but those are forwarded to the Income Tax authorities,” Brahma told Newsline. “Presently, we can act against candidates if they fail to stick to the mandated expenditure limits but the funding of parties is not under our purview,” the CEC said. [related-post] “The EC, in the past, has recommended to the government that monitoring the funding of political parties be brought under its ambit. For that, the government needs to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951, in Parliament. The ball is in its court,” he said. Brahma, who recently took over the reins of EC from former CEC V S Sampath, also admitted that there was a perception that the EC is empowered to deal with the way political parties are funded but was failing to take action. “Often, the public feels that we are not doing anything to deal with this issue. We even get letters from people asking why we don’t intervene in the way political parties are funded. But it’s more of a perception issue,” he said. The CEC said while the transparency guidelines issued by the EC had proven to be effective, there was a need for political parties to ensure that any funding exceeding Rs 20,000 is received only through cheques. Asked about AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal’s allegations about EVMs being tampered with, Brahma said, “If any EVM is found malfunctioning, it will be immediately discarded. One in a thousand machines may malfunction due to a technical or a mechanical defect or because of wear and tear.” Kejriwal had alleged that during an inspection of EVMs in Delhi Cantonment, the light against BJP got lit on four EVMs irrespective of the button one pushed. On what he felt about the shrillness of the ongoing poll campaign, Brahma said, “The intensity is high because this is a standalone election, that too, in the country’s capital. Elections in Delhi are a prestige issue for parties — they have always been.”
