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President signs electoral reforms ordinance

The President signed the ordinance after seeking Attorney General Soli Sorabjee's opinion on "certain nitty-gritties" of the proposed law, sources said.

Sorabjee told Kalam that the measure was based on an all-party consensus and any suggestion of his could be taken up at the time of its legislation in Parliament.

Sorabjee is also understood to have conveyed to the President that there was no attitude of confrontation on the part of the government and that it holds him in great regard.

The ordinance has been published in the gazette following the President's approval.

Kalam had returned the ordinance earlier this week, seeking clarification on the "absence" of provisions relating to the 1997 Election Commission guidelines on declaration of previous cases of conviction by candidates as well as their assets, and the dropping of the proposal relating to disqualification of a candidate if charges were framed against him in two cases of heinous crimes.

"Considering the total political consensus on which the bill to amend the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951, was drafted and the ordinance being an exact replica of the bill, the Cabinet decided to request the President to give assent to the promulgation of the ordinance in its present form under Article 123," an official spokesperson said.

PTI

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