State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mona Sharma on Thursday asked all the political parties to strictly follow the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and expenditure norms till the completion of the general elections in the State.
The CEO convened an all-party meeting to seek the cooperation of the political parties for the smooth conduct of the elections in the State. Representatives of all the registered political parties attended the meeting. Most of the representatives urged the CEO to take steps to stop liquor sale during the election period to which the authorities assured to consider the proposal in consultation with the Government.
Sources said issues like implementation of MCC, filing of nominations, submission of affidavits by candidates, complaint redressal mechanism, ceiling of election expenses for candidates, accounts of candidates and political parties and expenditure monitoring were discussed in details.
The candidates will be required to furnish information on the criminal antecedents of candidates, if any and assets and liabilities details through affidavits, Sharma said. Besides, she said that arrangements are being made for optional e-filing of the affidavit by candidates.
The CEO said if any column in the affidavit is left black, the concerned Returning Officer (RO) would issue a notice to the candidate to submit a fresh affidavit filling up all columns. After the notice, if the candidate fails to file the affidavit as wanted, his or her nomination would be rejected at the time of scrutiny.
She also informed that the ROs have been asked to display the copies of the affidavits on notice boards outside their offices and to make available on demand the copies of the affidavits freely to other candidates, general public and mediapersons on the very day of filing of affidavit.
Even the copies of the abstracts part of the affidavits would be displayed within the constituency at the Collectorate, Zilla Paridsha office and panchyat samiti office. The copies of the affidavits will also be uploaded on the CEO’s website, she said.
Notably, the lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be conducted in the State on April 10 and 17. The formal process would start from Mach 10 with the commencement of filing of nominations.