CNN's Talk Asia catches James Michael Lyngdoh - India's chief election commissioner (CEC) and winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service - live at Manila for a tête-à-tête.

The programme will be telecast today at 7 pm and repeated twice on Sunday at 4 pm and Tuesday at 6 pm.

Since his appointment in 2001, Lyngdoh has had to negotiate elections in two of India's most troubled states - Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir. The show's anchor Lorraine Hahn talks to Lyngdoh about his challenges as a civil servant whose commitment has helped make free and fair elections work.

Lyngdoh also tells why he disagreed with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on holding snap polls in Gujarat shortly after the Godhra riots. He says, “...we sent a team before us, and they went around and in fact, they found that people had drifted because of the riots. And of course, there is a lot of fear so obviously those two things had to be settled before any election could take place.”

In his opinion, it’s not India’s electoral system that has to be improved, but “...essentially the polls have to improve. And the polls will improve only if citizens are alert. Citizens insist that they get better people. Citizens insist that they don’t get criminals as they’re getting today...”