Gujarat Assembly polls to be held in December, dates and other modalities to be decided soon:CEC

Ahmedabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) today made it clear that the assembly elections for Gujarat would be held in December this year.

Addressing a press conference here today with along with the two Election Commissioners O. P. Rawat and Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti said that the election would be held in December and the dates and in how many phase to conduct it would be decided later.

He said that as the term of the current assembly in Gujarat is due to be completed by January 22, 2018, it was imperative that the election be held in December. ‘The election would be held in December but the date and number of phases etc would be decided later,’ he said. Joti also said that in this light there was nothing wrong in BJP president Amit Shah’s statement that the election would be held in December even before the dates have been announced.

To a query he said that the linking of voter ids with Aadhar has been halted owing to legal disputes 11 of which including an contempt of court proceeding against the then CEC in the apex court.

He said that the GST has nothing to do with the election. The maximum limit of expenditure for a candidate was 28 lakhs.

The CEC that it was not possible to monitor Social Media all the way owing to it being a difficult job.

He said that in case of some dispute and demand of counting of VVPAT slips the decision will be taken by the RO concerned. He refused to make a comment on the incident of rejection of two votes during August 8 Rajyasabha poll of Gujarat saying the matter was subjudice in the high court of Gujarat.

Joti said that the commission would look at the decision to extend the time of voting in the wake of use of VVPAT on all the polling station. He also said that the suggestion to avoid marriage season for election would also be looked at before deciding the date of election.

To a query he said that the duty of the ECI was to ensure free and fair poll on all the booths and not in any specific area owing to Patidar agitation or any other such thing.

He said that the commission has directed the State level and District level Election Machinery to be fearless, unbiased, neutral and independent from any influence whatsoever. Conduct and discharge of duties by the election officials would be under constant watch of the Commission. The Commission is making sincere efforts to ensure that “No voter to be left behind” in the forthcoming assembly election in the state. He said that as per the latest revision the total number of voters in the state was 4.33 crore of which 2.25 crore or around 52% were male and 2.07 crore or around 48% were female. There were a total of 50128 regular polling stations and 75 auxiliary ones.
No voter would be deleted from the voter list.

He also said that for the first time, the Commission has decided to set up a minimum of one all Women Managed Polling Station in the 182 Assembly constituencies of the State. In such polling stations right from polling staff to security staffs all would be woman.

He said that during this visit, the Commission met various political parties to understand their issues and concerns. Commission noted their suggestions for holding free fair and peaceful elections in the state. Commission reviewed work of DMs, SPs, Police Commissioners, DIGs/IGs and discussed issues with Chief secretary, Home secretary, DGP and other senior officers of the State Government.

‘We have instructed the authorities to ensure the check on abuse of money power in the state in pre election and election period. Any attempt of distribution of cash and liquor during poll would checked and inter-state borders should be sealed,’ he said.

Joti also said that a special drive has been launched yesterday which would be conducted on October 25 during which BLOs will distribute EPIC cards to newly registered Electors.. Collect the names of Absentee, shifted and dead voters (ASD) but no new deletion will take Place. In the recent campaign for Summary Revision as per eligibility on 01.01.2017, 10.46 Lac new voters have been enrolled, out of this, 3.21 Lac are first time voters in 18-19 age cohort. At the same time 4.14 Lac names of shifted and dead voters from the electoral rolls have been deleted during this revision.Percentage of photo coverage in the electoral roll is 99.99 % and EPIC coverage is 99.99 %. The remaining EPIC cards shall be issued to electors soon. Final Electoral Rolls has been displayed on the CEO’s Website and copies of the final Rolls have been given to all recognized Political Parties. All new additions and deletions have been made available to all political parties at field level. Presently there are a total of 50,128Polling Stations at 28639 polling locations and assured minimum facilities along with those for physically challenged voters were available.

Talking about law and order issue he said that the state administration and police have been asked to take steps to tone up the Security and Law and Order maintenance. General and police observers will be deployed in the state to monitor all activities and advise the local administration. The contact numbers of these observers will be made available to public. They will directly report to Commission. The CAPF will be used for Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) jointly by the DMs and SPs to reassure the voters and instill faith and confidence in them. The CAPF vehicles will have proper signage and public address system. Strict vigil will be maintained to check the cross-border smuggling of, drugs, liquor and other illicit items from neighbouring states. International borders in border districts of the state and Inter-state borders will be appropriately subjected to security and surveillance.Action against all identified trouble-mongers/anti- social elements/bad characters, proclaimed offenders etc. would be taken in order to prevent them from vitiating the election process. Comprehensive Inspection of Jails would be conducted by Jail department to stop the activities of criminals inside and outside. Webcasting / CCTV coverage/videography shall be provided at border check posts, identified Polling Stations etc.All critical polling stations and those in vulnerable areas will be covered under these arrangements.All licensed arms in the state shall be verified and except those exempted by the District-level Committee, all other Licenced weapons shall be deposited with the concerned Police Stations. Administration has been directed to launch a special drive for Deposition of licenced arms.

Talking about control of misuse of money powers the CEC said Commission reviewed with enforcement agencies to curb misuse of money/drugs/liquor and gifts distribution. All DEOs will Constitute Election Expenditure Monitoring Teams as per ECI Instructions. Income Tax officials will be deployed in all the districts for expenditure monitoring by the Candidates and the Political Parties. Adequate numbers of Flying Squads and Static Surveillance Teams will be operationalized in all 182 Assembly Constituencies to check movement of cash, liquor, drugs and other free bees in Gujarat.Mobile app based complaint system regarding abuse of money will be activated in each district. People will be able to file complaints with concerned authorities. Income Tax Authorities would set up A 24 X 7 control room and a 24 X 7 toll free number, (phone no 1800 233 1313) for the whole state will be started. A dedicated email id will also be created and made operational. These numbers and email id will be widely publicized through print and electronic media. (The control room will be make operational from announcement of Election. Movement of money through banking channels will be monitored and fool-proof arrangements would be made to monitor suspicious banking transactions.

After announcement of elections, affidavits filed by candidates will be quickly uploaded on website of the CEO, Gujarat the same day. This would enable all the Electors and Income Tax authorities to have access to the affidavits filed by candidates. 11 Air intelligence Units of IT authorities would be set up at Ahmadabad domestic, Ahmadabad-International, Baroda, Kandla, Surat, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Rajkot, Bhuj, Diu Airports.(Will be set up after announcement of Election). IT Teams would be deployed at the Railway Stations also.

About MCMC (Media Certification and Monitoring Committee) and paid news he said that committees have been constituted at every district while state level committee is located at state capital. To facilitate the candidates living at faraway places from district headquarters, Commission has directed that pre-certification requests for electronic media advertisements can be received at RO level. RO will forward these requests to MCMC committee at district level. After certified advertisement received from MCMC committee, RO will deliver the certificate to the candidate in a time bound manner.

He also said that the Commission has been successfully utilizing Information Technology based applications during elections, not only for improved facilitation of the various stakeholders like electors, election managers, political parties and candidates, but also to ensure efficient and effective monitoring of various elections processes and redressal of Public grievances. Some of the important IT initiatives shall be SAMADHAN: Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System to provide a common platform for all complaints, grievances, concerns and suggestions lodged by any member of the public. A Mobile App shall also be made available for the people, so that they can submit complaints with photographs/videos on the common platform. SMS is sent to complainant on receipt/disposal of complaint and the complainant can track status and view ATR online or through the Mobile App. SUVIDHA: Single Window Permission System for giving election-related permissions/clearances within 24 hours has been created. In this system, Candidates and Political Parties can apply for permissions for Meetings, Rallies, vehicles, temporary election office, loudspeakers etc at a single location, where back-end convergence of various authorities/departments has been done. This system is put in place at every RO level in each sub-division which will provide for applying, processing, granting and monitoring permissions in a synergistic manner. However, in case of permissions for Helicopter usage/landing and use of helipads, the application shall have to be submitted at least 36 hours in advance owing to various other clearances needed for it. SUGAM: Vehicle Management System is an IT-based Vehicle Management System with the facility of issuance of requisition letters for vehicles, capturing of vehicle details with address, mobile number and bank details of owner and driver, transfer of vehicles from one district to another district etc.

He said tht EVM and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT):will be used in all the 50128 polling stations of 182 Assembly Constituencies of state. VVPAT enables a voter to see the name of the candidate and the symbol of the candidate on paper to whom he has casted his vote. Commission has directed that awareness about the use of VVPATs must be carried out by district election machinery to acquaint the electors and political parties about the features and transparency of the VVPATs.Commission has directed that DEOs and SPs shall be personally responsible for safety and security of EVM & VVPAT.If a candidate has any substantive reason about the result of a particular EVM of a Polling Station, he/she can request the Returning Officer for counting of VVPAT paper slips giving specific reason for the request. The Returning Officer shall consider and decide about the request as per the guidelines issued by the Commission in this regard. Commission has decided to count VVPAT slips of one polling station, selected at random, in each Assembly Constituency on a pilot basis.

DeshGujarat