By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Wary of the use of money and muscle power during elections, the Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said the Commission has put in place several measures to check these menace to make the upcoming Assembly elections electorate-friendly.
Rounding up his two-day visit to the State on Tuesday, Sampath said, “Flying squads will be constituted to go to the spot where there is evidence of movement of cash or other objects to see that they don’t exercise undue influences on the polls”.
He said the Commission has a monitoring committee to keep a tab on the expenditure of candidates during the elections.
However, the expenditure ceiling for a candidate has been raised to Rs 8 lakh from Rs 5 lakh.
The Commission has directed the officers to implement comprehensive expenditure monitoring instruction to fight the use of money power, he said adding “Complaint monitoring cell and flying squad will be constituted in every district”.
The Hills State Peoples Democratic Party (HSPDP), a regional party supporting the ruling Congress coalition government in the State, has expressed concern at intimidation through money and muscle power during electioneering demanding strict action against defaulters.
“Under our new instruction the candidate or his agent will be required to visit our returning officers’ accounting wing…and they will maintain shadow register of expenditure of each of the candidates,” Sampath said.
In case of election officials having close relationship with any candidate, the EC has directed the State Election Department to identify such cases.
The Chief Election Commissioner also informed that altogether the state has 14.8 lakh electorate out of which 7.32 lakh are male and 7.49 lakh are females, adding altogether 2485 polling stations will be set up in the State. He said that there is 1.5 per cent of shortfall of voters.
Expressing his satisfaction with the revision of poll rolls, he said that the EPIC distribution in the state is one hundred percent.
Stating that 86,290 new voters have been enrolled in the new electoral rolls, he said that there is a provision where people can enrol themselves till the last date of filing of nominations.
On the security aspect, the official informed that the state administration has been directed to draw up proper security plans and vulnerability mapping to prevent intimidation and violence.
Reacting to a query about the deployment of security forces in the state, he said, “We will secure adequate forces for conducting free and fair polls.” The EC team held a meeting with the Deputy Commissioners and SPs of all the districts of the state where the officials were briefed about the law and order situation, arms deposition and Commission has issued directions to deal with the local specific problems. Expressing concern over the trend of ‘paid news’, the Commission directed the state election department to set up district-level committees to monitor this. Press Council of India-nominated journalists to check instances of paid news. These committees will be set up at the level of the EC, the State and every district. Earlier during their meeting, political parties requested for better security arrangements besides asking for a short gap between voting and counting.
The ECI asserted that the election officials will be under watch. Concerned over lack of proper road connectivity in certain polling stations of the state, the EC directed the State Chief Secretary to look into the matter.