State Election Commissioner PC Dalei on Tuesday held a meeting of the poll observers to update them with their rights and responsibilities to conduct the elections.
“The observers play a major role and act as eyes and ears for the Election Commission to keep close vigil on every activity during the polls” he said .
Dalei said that the observers should keep updating themselves with timely changes in guidelines and rules set by the Commission for ensuring free, fair and peaceful conduct of the polls. It also helps to solve the complaints and problems that arise during the polls.
The senior official informed the gathering that this year photographs of old voters could only be included in the voters’ list while the first time voters, whose photo could not be included in the list, will also be eligible to cast their votes in the polls.Electronic voting machine (EVM) will be used in the civic bodies’ polls for the first time in the State, he revealed.
The observers will be involved in the entire process i.e. from issuing the voters’ list to counting of votes. The observers will be responsible to report every activity to the Commission and thus, they should be prepared and updated with all the election related happenings of their respective areas, Dalai added.
He also informed the gathering in detail about the limit of election expenditure set for the candidates by the commission.
The Secretary of Chhattisgarh State Election Commission I P Dehari advised the observers to first examine the voters’ list and conduct sudden inspections at the polling booths of their respective areas.
The observers should know about sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling booths falling in their area of jurisdiction. Besides, they should examine availability of election materials three days ago from the voting, he added.
The Commission has approved 17 types of identity cards to allow the voters to cast their votes and thus, it also increases the observer’s works. They should also ensure that no eligible voter would deprive from his/her constitutional right of voting, Dehari said.