New Delhi, Jan 29: Asking government to take up electoral reforms in the coming session of Parliament, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi today said the time has come to consider the Right to Reject proposal.
 The CEC rejected the suggestion for state funding of elections, saying "this will only further add to the problem and not curb the use of money power in elections".
 "We hope the government will bring about the pending electoral reforms soon. Reform proposals should be taken very seriously in the coming session of Parliament... The EC's authority needs to be strengthened," he said.
 Speaking at a panel discussion on electoral reforms, Quraishi said "time has come for us to consider the Right to Reject proposal", but said further discussion was required to prevent political parties from fielding criminal candidates in elections. Such a proposal was earlier also demanded by Team Anna.
 Under this, voters will have the right to reject all the candidates in the fray if they find none to be suitable.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST