Eighth Annual National Conference on Political and Electoral Reform: 5th & 6th May 2012 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Topic: National Conference on Electoral and Political Reform

The 8^th National conference by ADR/NEW is scheduled to be held in May 2012 in Odisha.

At a time when the need for and efforts towards reforms in governance and the political system is being eagerly debated, the Conference will attempt to synergise the thoughts and efforts of various stakeholders in the process. The delegates to this conference will therefore include representatives of the Election Commission of India, organizations from all States of India participating in the National Election Watch (NEW) campaign, eminent citizens, media persons, bureaucrats and leaders from various political parties.

We are expecting vibrant discussions on the proposed electoral reforms of the government  and political party reforms. Apart from these the National Election Watch groups from each state, NGOs and youth will present and share their experience based on year long consultations in their respective states. The NEW representatives of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa will also share their experiences of the Assembly elections held in 2011. This time, we will also get to hear from the Mumbai team which conducted the Election Watch for the BMC elections.

At the end of two days, Resolutions on Electoral and Political reforms are expected to be passed and a comprehensive ‘Odisha Declaration on Electoral and Political Reforms’ is expected to be brought out. 

The NEW is a network of over 1200 organizations spread across the country. NEW along with ADR has been working on political reform since the past decade and more. Together, we conduct Election Watches for national and state elections. This along with the Political Party Watch programme is aimed at the introduction of transparency and accountability mechanisms in the electoral and political system of the country. Our achievements are mainly reflected in the declaration of the assets and criminal record of candidates during elections and recently in the disclosure of IT returns of political parties.

Previous annual conferences were held in Ahmedabad (2003), Bangalore (2004), Patna (2006), Lucknow (2007) Mumbai (2008), Bhopal (2010) & Chennai (2011).  

Press Releases related to the last Annual National Conference can be found below:

A Comprehensive Bill to regulate working of political parties discussed at the conference along with ICAI guidelines for IT returns of political parties

7th national conference on electoral reforms at Chennai: ECI announces new guidelines to curb money power in elections

Please watch this space for more news.