The mandate of the Election Commission is to be responsible for the process of elections and ensure that they are free and fair in arriving at a public mandate. Thus it is felt that the Election Commission is overstepping its mandate when going into the issue of freebies offered by political parties and how these parties will find funds to give these freebies. Political parties collect funds from the people and industry who are able to contribute and this money goes out to the needy who number much larger than the contributors. The EC can deal with matters that it is already seized upon like barring candidates with criminal records and more importantly the burgeoning wealth that candidates declare as wealth at each election as a list of assets. Should not the EC refer this to the appropriate agency to assess whether such accumulation of wealth is from known sources of income or acquired by illegal means. Just these 2 matters will go a long way in cleaning up the process of elections which is the EC's primary charter.
