Chief Electoral Officer Jaideep Govind discussed various points pertaining to lok Sabha elections with six recognised political parties and sought their suggestions here on Wednesday.
Govind informed them about the directives given by Election Commission after announcement of the lok Sabha elections on March 5.Various compendium and instructions received from the commission were also handed over to the political parties. Electoral rolls in CD form for first and second phase were provided by CEO’s Office to political parties.
Govind said the commission wishes to ensure free, fair and transparent elections throughout. He informed that this time information about affidavits filed by candidates is being displayed at 7 places apart from RO office.
The Election Commission has also provided list of persons debarred from contesting elections to political parties. He apprised political parties about postal ballot and election duty certificate system laid down by the commission. He said that only the person whose duty has been fixed outside Parliamentary constituency will apply for postal ballot.
Govind informed that apart form 53,946 polling booths, 881 auxiliary polling booths have also been set up in the State and political parties are being informed about them.
He informed that SVEEP activities are being conducted regularly to increase polling percentage. Work to include voters’ names in electoral rolls for the first and second phases has been completed. Now names in electoral rolls will be included till March 27 for the third phase. Process to include names will resume after the Sabha elections.
Govind apprised political parties about single window system, webcasting of critical polling booths, arms seizure and star campaigners.Additional Chief Electoral Officer Vl Kanta Rao, Joint Chief Electoral Officer SS Bansal, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravi Kishore, SS Uppal, Indian National Congress’ JP Dhanopiya, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Raja Ram, CPI’s
Shailendra Kumar Shailey and Pushan Bhattacharya and SC Shrivastava of Communist Party of India (M) were present on the occasion.