NEW DELHI, JAN 18: Politician-bashing doesn't seem to be a privilege enjoyed by Indian election officials like former CEC T.N.Seshan. Their counterparts in other countries also love doing it if the views of some of the poll authorities present here for the golden jubilee celebrations of the Election Commission of India are anything to go by.Dayananda Dissanayake, who heads the Sri Lankan Department of Elections for instance, was particularly unhappy with his country's politicians for their lack of confidence in the electoral system. ``After the introduction of apreferential voting system in 1978, our electoral exercises begin with a lot of mistrust and distrust,'' he remarked at a symposium organised to mark the celebrations.The use of money and muscle power, misuse of state funds, ballot-stuffing anderection of huge cutouts of candidates (the last, he said was inherited from ``Big Brother'' India along with a lot of other more desirable things) were some of the things he accused his politicians of.Dissanayake was no doubt impressed with the electronic voting machines employed in Indian elections but wondered if he will be able to convince politicians in his country about their utility.And taking off from where he left off, S.M. Kivuitu who chairs the Electoral Commission of Kenya took a rather dim view of politicians back home. ``Yesterday I saw your Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition sitting next to each other. That can't happen in Kenya,'' he said, making a passionate plea for India to have an intensive exchange of ideas with his country on the practice of democracy. ``All the Indians who come to Kenya are there only for business. You should also come to do some election business,'' he quipped.Earlier, Nepalese CEC Bishnu Pratap Shah, spoke of how the lack of internal democracy within political parties had caused damage to the system in his country in the past.And India's own CEC M.S. Gill couldn't but resist having a go himself at wayward politicians and parties in India. He enlightened his foreign compatriots about the phenomenon of leaders retaining supreme control over party structures for years at a stretch. ``Some of our largest parties had presidents for 15-20 years without any challenge,'' he said.Of course he didn't forget to mention that this phenomenon was now history after the EC and the courts intervened. ``Now the Congress party has appointed an election authority to oversee its elections. No longer will there be supreme leaders forever,'' he said.But Gill didn't agree with Shah who suggested that election commissions should conduct internal elections of recognised political parties as well. ``We don't want to get involved in the quagmire of party elections. It is enough if they hold their elections according to their constitutions,'' he said.His Pakistani counterpart Abdul Qadeer Chaudhry didn't seem too interested inthe goings-on. He was offered the floor but declined the offer. It transpires that he was busy with plans to visit his ancestral village in Punjab.
