With the announcement of Assembly elections in five States on Wednesday, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi made it clear that the candidates will have to open a fresh bank account for all election expenses and all expenses above Rs 20,000 will be made through cheques from their respective accounts.
The Commission has also made it mandatory for every candidate contesting to file another affidavit in the form of a "No demand certificate" declaring any pending electricity, water, telephone bills and rent for Government accommodation in their possession in last ten years. The Election Commission said that candidates will also make a declaration while filing their nominations that they were citizen of India and do not possess citizenship of any other country.
In order to ensure effective, accurate and credible elections expenditure, the Commission has decided that the candidates booths set up outside the polling stations should be deemed to have been set up by the candidates as part of their individual campaign and not by way of general party propaganda and all such expenditure incurred on such candidates' booths should be deemed to have been incurred by the candidates.
To ensure full secrecy of a voter and that facial expressions do not indicate their choice of candidate, the EC had decided to increase the height of the shield that covers the EVM to 30 inches. "Height of voting compartments has been raised to 30 inch for secrecy," Zaidi said.
The Commission has directed that in areas where women do not mingle with men, separate all-women polling booths will be set up. In polling stations provided exclusive for women elections, polling personnel should normally be women.
To avoid the use of fake voter IDs, the commission will ensure that voters identity cards have photos on them. In addition, the voter slips will also carry the respective person's photo and complete accountability will be ensured. Coloured photo guides will also be distributed to families to spread awareness. Every polling station will also have four posters describing voting procedure and the dos and don'ts.
The commissioner also announced that there will be a 'voter assistance' booth present at every polling station to resolve any grievances there might be. In a bid to make polling stations disabled-friendly, the EC is mapping them out polling station-wise.
Taking note of the assertive campaigning done by TV channels owned by candidates and political parties, Zaidi said that EC officials will be strictly monitoring them.