The election commission of the United States of America has invited Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy to observe the conduct of the presidential election.

Talking exclusively to rediff.com, Krishnamurthy said, "The American system of voting is very different from India. They vote in many ways – the conventional manner using ballot paper, with help of machines and also by punching their votes. The procedure (for exercising the franchise) varies from metros to towns to districts. The Indian system is simpler."

"Not only is our machine simpler, we now have identity cards. We have a model code of conduct for political parties and candidates, which is unique. Most important, unlike America, India has a centralised election machinery."

In the last general election in May, over 380 million people cast their votes on more than one million electronic voting machines.

Another major difference is that in America whenever disputes arise, courts decide on the matter while in India, courts never interfere with the elections from the date they are announced to the time the counting of votes is completed."

Indian voters, under the People's Representatives Act, section 49-O, can register a protest vote, meaning he can say, "I don't want to vote (for any of the candidates in the fray)." This is done through a register kept in all polling booths.

"I am trying to improve the system. If all parties agree, then we can have a category on the machine itself, which will allow voters to express – None of the above - their displeasure at the candidates."

This provision helps prevention of cheating because once a protest vote is registered, no one else can vote in that person's name, which is a common complaint.

Krishnamurthy is satisfied with the conduct of recent elections in the country. And so it seems is the rest of the world.

Recently, India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations according to which the Indian Election Commission will provide personnel, logistics and technical assistance for UN electoral observation and monitoring activities. The UN is likely to take India's help in conducting election in Iraq and a few countries in South America and Africa.

The EC will help the UN in strengthening electoral systems, provide training to conduct elections and help in production of materials pertaining to electoral systems.

The EC has also signed such MOUs with the Russia Federation, Nepal, Mexico, Ivory Coast and many other countries.

During the recent presidential election Afghanistan, two advisers and former officers of the Election Commission were holding top posts.

Surinder Mendiratta is serving as an international member on the Joint Electoral Management Body of Afghanistan while K J Rao has been appointed as the Electoral Offences Investigation and Enforcement officer under by UN's assistance mission.

Besides this, the Indian government is supplying indelible ink to Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mangolia and Nigeria.

Interestingly, Krishnamurthy, a former officer of the Indian Revenue Service, has forwarded some CDs containing about 4,500 affidavits of assets owned by the candidates who contested the Lok Sabha election to the Union ministry of finance for scrutiny. The MoF is expected to revert back by November 2004.

Despite all its achievements, Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh continue to remain problem areas. At present, the EC is gearing up for the assembly elections in Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand to be held in February 2005.