KOCHI: It is time for the reforms identified over the years to redress the problems in our electoral system to be implemented, said legal educator Prof N R Madhava Menon.Menon was delivering the inaugural address at the two-day national seminar on ‘Electoral Reforms and the Law’ which commenced on Wednesday at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies(NUALS), Kochi, under the aegis of its Centre for Parliamentary Studies and Law Reforms.The seminar ended on Thursday.Political parties are not interested in changing the existing electoral system which they have managed to master to their advantage.Prof Menon identified the issues of criminalisation of politics, lack of a mechanism to ensure election of a candidate who truly represents the electorate in the constituency and the appeals to influence voters on parochial grounds based on religion and communal considerations as the major threats to a healthy democracy in India.He observed that India has achieved a vibrant and strong political democracy as evidenced by the peaceful and methodical elections that were held recently.He lamented that we cannot claim with conviction the achievement of either social or economic democracy and that this is a fact that threatens the political democracy in the long run.Prof N K Jayakumar, Vice-Chancellor, NUALS, delivered the presidential address.He called for providing an option to the elector to reject the candidates if none appears to be a satisfactory.He also advocated the benefits of having a two-stage election system with the top two candidates of the first round moving to the second run-off round so that person who gets eventually to represent the electors will have more than 50 per cent of the votes cast.Dr Anil R Nair, Honorary Director, Centre for Parliamentary Studies and Law Reforms, delivered the welcome address and N Harikrishna, president, NUALS Students Council, proposed the vote of thanks.The technical session of the day was chaired by N S Soman, Associate Professor, School of Legal Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology.Criminalisation of politics and the concept of appeasement of electors through the ‘Thirumangalam formula’ are the major threats to Indian democracy that need to be addressed immediately, said presenters.Lawyers, academicians and students from across the country are taking part in the seminar which will conclude on Thursday.
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