New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Tuesday chaired a National Round Table Conference of the ECI and State Election Commissioners (SECs) that resolved to synergise laws related to panchayats and civic polls with those for parliamentary and state Assembly elections.

A National Declaration 2026 issued after the day-long conference at the Bharat Mandapam said that the ECI suggested working out mutually acceptable mechanisms and legally viable frameworks to synergise with all SECs for all possible election processes.

The ECI proposed the sharing of ECINET, EVMs, Electoral Rolls and the world-class Infrastructure at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management, reinforcing the spirit of cooperative federalism in electoral management.

The CEC also requested the SECs to come forward and participate in international engagements of ECI and proposed to hold such National Round Table Conference once every year, preferably along with the international conferences, said a statement.

“All suggestions given by SECs in this National Round Table Conference will be studied in detail by a joint team of legal and technical officers led by concerned DECs of ECI. A State/UT-wise way forward will be submitted to the ECI in the next three months for the best possible decision in the national Interest,” said the statement.

The event also saw consensus on the fact that the preparation of pure electoral rolls is the bedrock of democracy, and transparent conduct of elections in an efficient manner strengthens democracy.

The roundtable conference, convened after a hiatus of about three decades, assumed significance as it came in the backdrop of the ensuing Assembly elections and also amid the political furore over the purging of electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The last such conference was held in 1999.

“The primary objective of the Round Table Conference was to foster synergies in the functioning of ECI and SECs with respect to electoral processes and logistics within their respective legal frameworks,” the poll body said in a statement.

It added that the deliberations provided a platform for constructive exchange of ideas and reinforced the spirit of cooperative federalism in the electoral management.

–IANS

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