Senior Citizen Society calls for free and fair election practices
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 02 2016: In an apparent step to curb the menace of 'money power' in elections, the Senior Citizen for Society, Manipur has called for collective efforts from every section of the society to adopt free and fair election practices.

In an interaction with mediapersons today at Manipur Press Club, Secretary of Senior Citizens for Society (SCS) Khaidem Mani informed that SCS will organize a public meeting on August 21 to form an apex committee to monitor the upcoming Manipur State Assembly election 2017 .

All State level civil society organisations, Women Societies, Meira Paibis, Student Organisations of both of hills and valley are urged to attend the said meeting to form a committee and to bring free and fair election system in Manipur, he added.

Senior Citizen Society calls for free and fair election practices

The State has seen the worst side of faulty democratic practices during elections and it is the root cause of all problems such as bandhs and blockades, nepotism, corruption, human rights violation, crime against women, absence of law and order and failure of administration, said SCS general secretary L Sadananda.

He added that such problem arises when there is a lack of governance.

"When we have an effective Government, everything can be checked in a proper manner and an effective Government can be formed when competent leaders are elected in a free and fair manner," Sadananda added.

He said that the committee will campaign for strict compliance of the Model Code of Conduct issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Awareness programmes and campaigns will also be conducted not to sell our voting right.

The committee will also press the political parties to nominate candidates after strict screening, crusade against malpractices and interference in the election process by the party in power and other stakeholders, he added.

He also urged all the CSOs, NGOs, women societies, Meira Paibis and student organisations of both hills and valley to send their representatives to the public meeting.

In the meantime, SCS has also extended their warm wishes to all the State's sportspersons who are participating in the Rio Olympic Games.