New Delhi, Sept. 9 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced stringent new measures to prevent fraudulent political party registrations, mandating intensive verification of founding members' affidavits after discovering cases of manipulated documentation in recent applications.

As part of its ongoing campaign to clean up the electoral system, the ECI will now require verification of at least 20 randomly selected individual affidavits from founding members of any association seeking registration as a political party under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The decision comes after the Commission noticed several recent cases where applicants submitted "manipulated or false affidavits" in attempts to s...