THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Igniting a discourse on the presidential election in the country, Supreme Court former judge Jasti Chelameswar on Thursday, said the present system in the country was about 70 years old and majority were not with happy with the current system.
“Of course, the presidential elections has its own pros and cons. However, it is important to strike at the root when the cosmetic reforms initiated in the elections process in the country failed to bring any drastic or radical change in the current system,” he said.
Speaking after inaugurating a seminar on the electoral reforms in the country organized in connection with the birth centenary of Indrajit Gupta, veteran leader of the Communist Party of India, longest-serving member of the Lok Sabha and former Union Home Minister here at the VJT Hall, the former SC judge said that everybody knew the inherent weakness of the current system. “The underlying presumption is the existing system needs some change as we are not happy with the current system” he said.
“We should know what exactly is wrong with the system, then only one can fix the problem. The role of money power in the electoral process is one of the major concerns,” he said.
It’s fixing accountability or proving the offence with evidence that matters.“But there are some difficulties in proving the offences even if we know that some of the candidates are spending money beyond the set limits or bribing the voters,” he said.