For a true mandate
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 27, 2011 -

The long expectant wait is over; finally the Election Commission of India has announced the polling date for all the five states including Manipur. For Manipur, the date has been fixed on January 28 which comes a little ahead of what was generally speculated.

Interestingly, on this date also falls Basant Panchami which is considered one of the more auspicious days by the Hindus, and consequently, many a marriages and other rites of passage will be solemnized on this day which might lead to many voters struggling to extricate themselves to cast their votes.

Even so, keeping it in the month of January works for Manipur, as holding it in later part of February would have have meant, on the one hand, a longer time for freeloaders and on the other, more leverage to candidates with solid financial backings to woo the voters.

Also a date nearer to the Yaosang festival, would also have meant candidates coming under extra pressures for financial donations for all sorts of activities from every quarters.

This would have worked to the advantage of those candidates who have deep bottomless pockets. Having said so, this time around, the Election Commission has put in place a number of measures in place to put a check on the use of money power during electioneering leading up to the polling day.

Chief among these, is the appointment of Expenditure Observers and Assistant Expenditure Observers who will monitor all the expenses of the contesting candidates.

The requirement of opening of separate bank account by all the candidates and routing all election expenses through this account would certainly help in more comprehensive financial monitoring.

Along with this, the plan to set up flying squads, video surveillance teams in the constituency, as also the decision to involve Investigation Directorates of Income Tax Department will also help in keeping the unjustified and distorting role of money power in the coming elections in check.

After the recent uproar over paid news, the Election Commission this time around is paying special attention to this menace.

That EC is serious about taking action against those found guilty, can be gauged from the disqualification of one MLA from Utter Pradesh, Umlesh Yadav belonging to Rashtriya Parivartan Dal and the cases being taken up against the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Ashok Chavan and Madhu Koda respectively.

Setting up Monitoring Committees at District, State and Commission level should help in controlling advertisements and propaganda of contesting candidates and political parties appearing as news giving them undue advantage over their rival candidates or parties.

Media houses and the media fraternity can and should play a proactive role in rooting out this travesty of the democratic process.

The Election commission has also taken up many other steps starting from providing adequate security in polling booths by deploying central police forces and polices forces from other states to videographing the key process election process including the polling day which would also help in reducing use of unfair means during the voting.

For Manipur especially, the decision to hold election at one go should also help in putting a stop to double voting, which is supposedly quite prevalent in the state.

But from our experience we know that laws or measures by themselves are not enough, but requires the sincerity and commitment of the people on ground who are tasked with implementing these.

We certainly look forward to all these people standing up to this challenge for a free and fair election which would truly reflect the mandate of the people.