GUWAHATI: The Assam State Election Commission has on the eve of the panchayat elections in the state issued a set of restrictions for the conduct of free and fair polls.
An order issued by the state election commissioner, H. N Bora, on Tuesday restricted the conduct of any opinion/discussion on the panchayat poll besides suggesting or forecasting performance/prospect of political parties or any candidate contesting the elections to be held on December 5 and 9, 2018 respectively.
Besides, the commission has also restricted the conduct of any exit poll, publication and dissemination of result of such exit poll in connection with the current election to the PRI bodies by means of print, electronic media or in any other manner whatsoever during the period from 7am of December 5, 2018 up to 3.30pm of December 9, 2018.
The order has been issued by the commission in the “interest of free and fair elections” and “in exercise of its authority under Article 243 ZA of the Constitution of India and in the spirit of provisions of Section 126 A of the Representation of the Peoples’ Act, 1951.
The commission it may be noted vide notification number SEC 24/2017/Pt-VIII/9 dated November 5, 2018 had fixed the two phase elections to panchayat bodies in Assam on December 5 and December 9, 2018.
The polls will be conducted across 16 administrative districts in the first phase on Wednesday. As many as 23,505 polling stations have been set up with 8,243 marked sensitive and 3,665 marked hyper sensitive, with the commission gearing up measures for smooth conduct of the polls.