New Delhi, February 24 – Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar chaired a National Round Table Conference of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and State Election Commissioners (SECs) on Tuesday. The conference resolved to harmonize laws related to local councils and civic elections with those for parliamentary and state assembly elections.
A National Declaration 2026, issued after the day-long conference at the Bharat Mandapam, stated that the ECI suggested working out mutually acceptable mechanisms and legally viable frameworks to harmonize with all SECs for all possible election processes.
The ECI proposed sharing of ECINET, EVMs, Electoral Rolls, and the world-class infrastructure at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management, thereby reinforcing the spirit of cooperative federalism in electoral management.
The CEC also requested the SECs to participate in international engagements of the ECI and proposed to hold such a National Round Table Conference once a year, preferably along with international conferences, according to a statement.
"All suggestions given by the SECs in this National Round Table Conference will be carefully studied by a joint team of legal and technical officers led by concerned DECs of the ECI. A state/UT-wise roadmap will be submitted to the ECI within the next three months for the best possible decision in the national interest," the statement said.
The event also saw consensus on the fact that preparing pure electoral rolls is the foundation of democracy, and conducting elections transparently and efficiently strengthens democracy.
The roundtable conference, convened after a hiatus of about three decades, gained significance as it came in the backdrop of the ensuing assembly elections and also amid the political uproar 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 the 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.