After receiving suggestions and reactions of CEOs of various States, Election Commission has changed existing system of publicising part-II of affidavits filed with nomination forms of candidates.
At present, these affidavits are displayed on the website of Chief Electoral Officer.
Hard copies of affidavits are displayed on the notice board of Returning Officer.
If office of Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) is located elsewhere
instead of Returning Officer’s office, then copies of every affidavit are also displayed at ARO office at a prominent public place.
Besides, if any person demands copies of affidavits then the same are also provided to him.
Commission has been urged from various quarters that candidates’ affidavits should be widely publicised so that voters can have this information easily.
Following it, the commission sought suggestions and reactions of CEOs of various states and considered it.
Most of CEOs were in favour of displaying this part of affidavit at different places in the constituency.
Consequently, the commission has decided that apart from existing places, part-II of affidavits should be displayed at 7 other public places.
These include 1) collectorate, 2) Zila Parishad Office, 3) SDM office, 4) Panchayat Samiti office (i.e. Block Office), 5) offices of urban bodies in the constituency, 6) Tahsil/taluka office and 7) Panchayat Office.
Work of displaying information will be done within 5 days after withdrawal of names by candidates.
Apart from collectorate and district Parishad office, details of candidates’ affidavits will also be displayed in all constituencies in the district.
Affidavits of one constituency will be displayed simultaneously and not separately. Similarly, if there is more than one constituency in a sub-division then affidavits of all candidates will be displayed at SDM’s office.
The commission has directed Chief Electoral Officers to inform all district election officers, returning officers, SDMs etc. about directives for display of affidavit’s part-II (as mentioned in part-B
of Form-26) in all lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad constituencies.