NEW DELHI: S.Y. Quraishi, who took charge as the 17th Chief Election Commissioner here on Friday, said enhancing voter participation and restricting the role of money power would receive due priority.

Talking to journalists, along with Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath, he said the Commission had held a series of discussions with expenditure observers to find out the areas it could focus on to strengthen checks and controls to prevent misuse of money power.

“We will come out with detailed guidelines. They are being fine-tuned. By the end of August, they will be in place. We hope we will be able to tighten our control on the use of money power.”

The EC was working systematically to achieve a perfect electoral roll at the earliest. “We would continuously strive to deliver free and fair election wherever and whenever required. At the same time, despite the strength of the Commission's heritage, our systems are continuously evolving. We not only deal with issues as we confront them, we try to anticipate several of them.”

No advancing polls

Mr. Quraishi said there was no question of the Commission advancing the Assembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. “Nothing on the radar. We come into the picture only six months before the due date. Before that we have no locus standi at all.”

To a question, he said the EC was constantly working towards making electronic voting machines absolutely foolproof.

He replied in the negative when asked whether it would give a second thought on the use of EVMs.

About voting rights to non-resident Indians, he said though the EC favoured it, there were certain issues which needed to be worked out such as who could be given voting rights and whether voting could be done through the postal ballot.

The EC would also consider using biometric cards in polls.

Mr. Quraishi said 85 per cent of the voters had been issued the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC). When the EC gave more cards, the “unique identification numbers will be superimposed along with EC card numbers.”

Filling vacancy

Meanwhile, Law and Justice Minister M. Veerappa Moily said the process of selecting a new Election Commissioner was yet to start as the vacancy arose only on Friday. “It will be taken care of in due course.”

In the three-member EC, the vacancy arose following the retirement of Navin Chawla, who demitted office as CEC.