Election Commission of India (ECI), constitutionally mandated body that was established in 1950 to foster the democratic process in India. Headquarters are in New Delhi. It consists of three members—a chief election commissioner and two other commissioners—who are appointed by the Indian president for six-year terms and who cannot be dismissed from office except by parliamentary impeachment. The ECI, thus nearly invulnerable to political influences and scrupulously nonpartisan, is charged with conducting fair and orderly elections.
The ECI supervises, directs, and controls the entire electoral process for elections to the national parliament, state legislatures, and the offices of the national president and vice president. It prepares, maintains, and updates the electoral roll; supervises the nomination of candidates; registers political parties and classifies them on national and state levels; and monitors election campaigns, including political fund-raising. It also facilitates media coverage, organizes polling booths, and oversees vote counting and the declaration of results. The ECI is authoritative and decisive in matters of elections—for instance, where the law is ambiguous—but it can be challenged in courts of law.
The Indian general election is easily the world’s most extensive democratic exercise; in the early 21st century it encompassed roughly 700 million voters across some 700,000 polling stations in diverse geographic, political, and climatic environments. The ECI operates through a secretariat with some 300 staff members. Each state has a chief electoral officer with a core staff, and civil officers assume the responsibilities of election officials at the district and constituency levels. During general elections, however, an enormous team of temporary workers—up to five million people—are deputized to conduct the polling.
The ECI has undertaken several to keep its operations relevant. Those initiatives include using state-owned electronic media for the parties’ political campaigning, making efforts to check the criminalization of politics, computerizing electoral rolls and providing voter-identity cards, and strictly adhering to a code of conduct that ensures fairness for all parties and candidates.
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This article was most recently revised and updated by Kenneth Pletcher, Senior Editor.