SHILLONG, Oct 28: Chief Electoral Officer, FR Kharkongor said the Election department has booked some candidates and political parties for violating the COVID-19 protocols during the campaign for the bye-elections to the three Assembly constituencies on October 30.
“The district election officers (DEOs) have filed more than 20 FIRs in the three constituencies and also issued show-cause notices to the candidates and political parties concerned for the violation of the COVID-19 protocols,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Kharkongor said a star campaigner of one of the political parties was given a restraint order and not allowed to campaign further for violation of the protocols.
“We have gone to the extreme of even withdrawing the campaign permission to some of the candidates. In quite a few cases, candidates were issued show-cause notices,” he said.
Kharkongor said he also instructed the DEOs that as the chairpersons of the District Disaster Management Authority they should file FIRs by taking into account the government’s COVID protocols and not only for electoral reasons.
He added that they are trying to enforce the COVID protocols with the limited resources at their command.
“But the problem is because the people are not cooperating. In some cases, the political parties are helpless because people do not listen,” Kharkongor said.
According to him, people are not following the protocols even at marriages and funerals.
“Fortunately, the silence period came early in view of the COVID-19 situation, ensuring an early end for the election campaign this time,” he said.
On the brighter side, there were no complaints about the violation of the model code of conduct in terms of misuse of official vehicles or of the government machinery, the CEO said.
There were no cash seizures in the three Assembly constituencies too.
“But the deputy commissioners have written to the banks to report any suspicious transactions above Rs 50,000 and also if there is any unusual crediting of money,” Kharkongor said.
Officials, though, seized liquor valued at about Rs 1.5 lakh across the three constituencies.
He said the expenditure observers are closely observing the expenses made by the political parties and they will be submitting a separate report to the Election Commission.