The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday launched the inaugural edition of “The Election Commission of India Annual National Essay Contest on Election and Democracy,” conducted jointly by India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) & Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana.

The Competition opens on October 2 and the last date for the submission of entries is November 21, 2021.

The two topics for the contest are – Topic 1: ‘Legal Framework for Social Media Regulations During Elections’ and Topic 2: ‘The ECI’s Role in Protecting and Preserving Electoral Democracy’. The main objective of this essay competition is to encourage law students to engage in contemporary research and explore new dimensions of the law governing elections in India, said a senior officer of the Election Commission.

The essay entries would be evaluated by JGLS faculty members with expertise in election laws, in consultation with the IIIDEM on five criteria including Originality of the content, Formatting & Presentation, Quality of Research, Argumentation, and Use of Authorities and citations. The prizes, which are available for different categories, are attractive with the first prize pegged at Rs. 1 lakh.

While emphasizing the importance of the essay competition, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, shared a message highlighting that the contest is an effort to inspire young and bright minds from Law Schools to undertake research on the laws and policy governing elections in India. He further added that the Essay Contest would provide a platform for the students to showcase their depth of knowledge, analytical ability, and persuasive style of writing.

Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar in his message emphasised that the Essay contest is an initiative to sensitize, develop, harness, and sharpen the talent of Law students and provide an annual competitive opportunity to express their understanding of the Constitution, Law, and the electoral process. Highlighting the challenges in the field of Electoral Law, he informed that the Electoral Laws deal not only with the rights of the voters, political parties, and candidates, but also deal with their responsibilities. He encouraged the young students to participate with enthusiasm in the said competition.

Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey while highlighting the two topics of the essay contest in his message said that these require the participants to go through various Constitutional and legal aspects of the democratic process in general, and electoral provisions in particular. He further expressed his full confidence that the young participants of the competition will come out with brilliant write-ups on the subjects.

The complete details of the National Essay Contest are available at website URL: https://www.eciessay.org/ which will be functional from October 2 onwards, the Commission said.