Bangalore: Curbing poll malpractices top priority, says chief electoral officer
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Mar 21: Checking and curbing electoral malpractices by all political parties and candidates or their agents will be the top priority of the Election Commission during the electoral campaign in the Karnataka Assembly polls on May 5, Karnataka’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anil Kumar Jha announced on Thursday.
Four type of observers covering general, expenditure, micro and police will check malpractices by candidates and political parties during the electoral campaign, he said.
The Election Commission would deploy one general observer to each Assembly constituency to oversee the process of elections.
The expenditure observer in each constituency would monitor expenditure of each candidate.
The poll expenditure of each candidate has been fixed at Rs 16 lakh.
The amount spent by parties on behalf of the candidate during the public meetings in the constituency will come under the parties’ accounts.
Each candidate has to provide a newly opened bank account details to the expenditure observer to ensure that the expenditure is within the limits.
EC has already conducted meetings with banks and police officials to check poll malpractices, he said.
Micro observers would be deployed on the polling day in sensitive polling booths to ensure free and fair elections.
Police observers comprising officers of IPS rank would be deployed in each district to maintain law and order during the campaign and on the polling day.
The IPS officers, who would be drawn from other states, would be deployed in each district, Jha said.
With the announcement of the poll schedule by the EC and the immediate enforcement of the model code of conduct from April 20 evening itself, the CEO said the State Government will have put on hold all announcements, new works and schemes.
He said the State Government can execute only “emergency cases” related to drought relief and drinking water.
“No new work or schemes will take off,” he said making it clear that issuing orders for new schemes, new works and new tenders would lead to violation of model code of conduct.
Hence, the State Government has no powers to issue orders for implementation of decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting held last two weeks.
Anil Kumar Jha said only ongoing works would be allowed to completed and implemented.
Further, there was no bar in taking up emergency cases with regard to drought or drinking water. But the
Government has to obtain prior permission from the Election Commission for transferring officials.
Over 500 companies of paramilitary forces comprising 50,000 personnel in addition to all police personnel will be deployed to ensure free and fair elections.
''We require more paramilitary forces since it’s a single phase poll.”
The Election Commission of India has convened a meeting with senior officials of the Home and Railway ministries in New Delhi on Friday to discuss the issue.
“We require more than 500 companies of paramilitary forces” and the Centre would ensure adequate deployment of forces,” he said.
Elections were held in three-phases in May 2008 while the Lok Sabha elections were held in two phases in 2009 in the State.
The CEO said a Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign would be conducted in the State to create awareness among the people to participate in the poll process, particularly in Bangalore where the poll percentage in the 2008 election was not much.
The campaign would be launched in all districts centers to exhort candidates above 18 years of age as on January 1, 2013, to enroll their names in the voters’ list.
He said 66 per cent of the State’s population is above 18 years of age in the State while it is 63 per cent in Bangalore. Efforts would be made to reach the target of 65 per cent in Bangalore.
He admitted that there are some errors in the voter database and those are being corrected. Already 43,000 such cases have been corrected.