How Are Election Held in India?

The decisions of the commission are taken by a majority vote. Sunil Arora is the current Chief Election Commissioner and the other two are Ashok Lavasa

Originally in 1950, the commission had only a Chief Election Commissioner. Two additional Commissioners were appointed to the commission for the first time on 16 October 1989 but they had a very short tenure, ending on 1 January 1990.

The Election Commissioner Amendment Act, 1989 made the Commission a multi-member body. The concept of a 3-member Commission has been in operation since then, with the decisions being made by a majority vote.the official website was introduced on 28 February 1998

The Chief Election Commissioner cannot be removed from his post easily on account of any political reasons. This is necessary so as to preserve the independence of election commission.

Chief Election Commissioner of India can be removed from his office by the Parliament with a two-thirds majority in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the grounds of proved misbehavior or incapacity

Other Election Commissioners can be removed by the President of India on the recommendation of the Chief Election Commissioner. A Chief Election Commissioner has never been impeached in India.

In 2009, just before the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami sent a recommendation to President Prathibha Patil to remove Election Commissioner Navin Chawla, who was soon to take office as the Chief Election Commissioner and to subsequently supervise the Lok Sabha Election, citing his partisan behavior in favor of one political party.

The President opined that such a recommendation is not binding on the President, and hence rejected it.[4] Subsequently, after Gopalswami's retirement the next month, Chawla became the Chief Election Commissioner and supervised the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections.

The Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners who are usually retired IAS officers draw salaries and allowances at par with those of the Judges of the Supreme Court of India as per the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1992

In June 2011, the Election Commission of India (ECI), established the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) to advance its professional competence in election management, promote peoples participation, contribute to developing stronger democratic institutions and support the efforts of ECI in carrying out its mandate and functions.

Over the last six decades, the structure and functions of the Election Commission have undergone major changes and thus the management of elections has become increasingly complex

A rapid transformation in social context and reality, rising number of political parties, changing dynamics and demands of coalitions and alliances, frequent elections and bye-elections, increase in number of eligible voters and continuous updating of electoral rolls have led to new challenges for election management bodies of today.

The ‘Vision @ 60’ document of the Commission aims to conduct elections that are completely free of crime and abuse of money power, based on a seamless electoral roll with voters’ full participation.

To translate this to reality, close to 11 million personnel at various levels are engaged to carry out the constitutional mandate of the Commission.

They need to be equipped with competency and skills, in response to which the Commission has signed Memorandums of Understanding with a number of countries and inter-government agencies for sharing best practices and providing technical assistance.

With regard to institutionalizing training for election management bodies to be fully equipped for undertaking such visionary action; the Election Commission of India had created a separate training division

However, this division was not in a position to provide undivided attention to the changing needs of training, capacity development, research and documentation

Therefore, to provide coordination for all training activities across the country and assist young and emerging democracies abroad, IIIDEM was established to ensure that all election managers maintain high professional standards in imparting their election duties.