ECI chief talks tough against money power
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 05 2011: Chief Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi has assured that necessary measures would be taken up to stop use of money power to woo voters in the upcoming election to the State Assembly due next year.

Talking to mediapersons at the conference hall of Old Secretariat, Dr Quraishi, who arrived here today at the head of a full team of Election Commission of India to review the preparedness for the upcoming 10th General elections to Manipur Legislative Assembly which is due by February, 2012, said that the experiences of the measures taken up to stop use of money power to woo voters during the recent Assembly elections in Bihar, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerela and Pondicherry would be applied in Manipur as well.

Dr Quraishi informed that there is a separate division to look into use of money power in the election.

In addition to deployment of observers to monitor the election expenditures of the candidates, there would be surveillance teams.

The Commission would also maintain shadow registers to record how many meetings have been conducted and how many vehicles have been used by the candidates in their respective election campaign.

In the upcoming State Assembly election, all the candidates would be made to open separate bank accounts and the election expenditure would be transacted through this account.

The Commission would also distribute the voters slips in the election.

Dr Quraishi further said that there would be close monitoring of the paid news and for this purpose media certification and monitoring centres would be set up in all the districts.

Journalists would also be part of these media certification and monitoring centres.

On his meeting with the representatives of various political parties, Dr Quraishi said that most of them prefer that the election be held in one day only.

But the Commission is yet to take a definite decision in this regard.

During the meeting, political parties have not only raised complaints against use of money and muscle power in the election but also over the manner of conducting the election which they asserted is more like a selection, the Chief Election Commissioner disclosed, adding that suggestions have also received from the political parties for deployment of Central Paramilitary force in the election, posting of the personnel who have remained in one place for long to another place and video coverage facilities in sensitive polling stations, he added.

With regard his meeting with the Deputy Commissioners, Dr Quraishi informed that necessary instructions have been given to the officers for maintaining neutrality in their works and completing the process of preparing the electoral rolls.

From August 17 onwards, External Observers would be deployed here to oversee and supervise preparation of the Photo Rolls and distribution of Photo Identity Cards.

The Commission has set the target of preparing/using cent percent Photo Rolls and Photo I-Cards in the election, Dr Quraishi said.

Earlier, during the day, Dr Quraishi also reportedly held separate meetings with the Chief Secretary, Commissioner Home and DGP at the Raj Bhavan to discuss issues related to the upcoming Assembly election.

Chief Election Commissioner Dr SY Quraishi is currently on a two day visit to the State at the head of a full team of the Election Commission of India.

Other team members include two Election Commissioners, namely VS Sampath and HS Brahma, two Deputy Election Commissioners, namely JP Prakash and Dr Alok Shukla and Director General (Expenditure) TK Das.

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