The campaign for electoral and political reforms has over 1200 organizations working with it, in addition to support from eminent citizens, media, senior retired judges, bureaucrats and Police officers. The Conference is being hosted by the Association for Democratic Reforms. The three Election Commissioners of India have confirmed their participation. These campaigns came out of the landmark Supreme Court Judgments of May 2, 2002 and March 13, 2003 mandating disclosure of candidates’ financial, educational and criminal background. Previous Conferences were held in Ahmedabad (2003), Bangalore (2004), Patna (2006), and Lucknow (2007). Since 2002, the major impacts of these campaigns have been on criminalization of politics, and transparency in candidate and political party assets. Leaders of both the BJP and the Indian National Congress have made public statements that they would not field candidates with criminal records even if they were likely to win in the coming Lok Sabha elections. As a result of these campaigns, the percentage of candidates with criminal records has come down from over 20% to about 12% recently. However, a lot still remains to be done. In particular, the exponential growth in the use of money power is a major area of concern since it vitiates democracy. The delegates to this conference will include organizations from all States participating in the National Election Watch (NEW) campaign, eminent citizens, media, senior bureaucrats and Police officials, leaders from the corporate sector and the political parties. At the same time, anyone interested is welcome to participate. Though electoral and political reforms require a lot of debate and work, in this Conference the focus will be on specific action items:

1. A set of demands for improving elections and democracy. These include the option of “None of the above” on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), barring candidates against whom serious charges have been framed in a Court, disqualifying candidates 4 who indulge in electoral malpractices, and striking off names of people with non bailable warrants from voter rolls. These have emerged from consultations around the country, and have also been endorsed by the Election Commission.
2. The need for a comprehensive Bill to regulate Political Parties. All leading democracies have such a Bill, we have none. The issues of inner party democracy in political parties, and greater transparency and regulation of political party funding is required.
3. Specific action plans for the coming general elections under the banner of National Election Watch (NEW), a campaign that is already under way.

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