Election Commission issues guidelines for fair conduct of LS elections

Guwahati, February 27, 2019:

The Election commission of Assam on Wednesday issued a set of guidelines for the proper conduct of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and has taken up new initiatives to ensure that the election goes smoothly.

Addressing the media, Chief Electoral Officer, Mukesh Sahu said that the Election Commission has issued guidelines for a “Model Code of Conduct” in the state before the election to avoid any misconduct.

“The EC will form a Media Certification Monitoring Committee (MCMC) under the Model Code of Conduct that has been divided into two parts, i.e district and the state committee which will look after the banners and advertisement by the parties. Any party that wants to go for any publicity activities will have to take permission from the committee”, he said.

To ensure that the election outcome is not determined by big money, an Election Expenditure Monitoring Committee will also be formed which will also have the state and the district divisions and will have one observer in each district. Under this committee, an application term “Subidha” will be made available through which nominations can be filed online. Also, this committee will monitor the expenditure of a candidate and no party or candidate can spend more than Rs 70 lakh during the campaign.

Moreover, the EC has also planned to introduce the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). In this VVPAT, after voting a slip will be generated in which the voters can see whom they have voted and just like the EVM counting is done, the generated slip will also be counted as well. This system was used during the 2016 election in only ten centers but this time the VVPAT will be used in all the centers.

Also, in the IT application, the candidates will have to submit their affidavits online. Along with that, a mobile application has been introduced by the Commission, “C-Vigil” which will be made available to the voters from the date of announcement of the election. Through this app, any violation of the Model Code can be filed by uploading pictures and videos in it. A Voter Helpline online application will also be available in which any voter whose name has been wrongly printed or any other information that has any mistake can be forwarded for correction.

Meanwhile, a PWD software will also be made available for the specially-abled voters through which they can vote while residing at their own residence.