Political parties in TN seeks single phase LS elections: CEC

CHENNAI: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Rajiv Kumar on Saturday said that the political parties in Tamil Nadu have urged him to conduct the general election in a single phase besides requesting to curb the vote for money and distribution of freebies during the poll campaign.

Rajiv, who was here in Chennai to review the poll preparedness for a general election to Lok Sabha, in 2024, said that with political parties requesting to conduct single-phase elections, their request would be taken into consideration. However, he said the Election Commission of India (ECI) cannot commit at this point of time.

"They (political party leaders) also asked us to control the proliferation of liquor during the polling campaign", he added.

Stating that there would be a total of 145 check posts along the Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka border, he said the security forces in the check post will ensure there would not be any transportation of liquor from one state to another.

"Ambulances and cash vending machines for ATMs will be closely monitored", he said adding "Even cost guards will be on alert to stop smuggling"

With regard to small money transactions to several accounts, the CEC said apart from the banks ECI will also keep track of the fund transfers to multiple bank accounts. "Banks were also instructed to keep a high vigil on high money transactions", he added.

Rajiv said that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) will be used with some technical improvements. The CEC also said during this general election, the voter slips will be distributed one week before the election date. "So that the voters will know their polling booth well in advance", he said.

The voters have a right to know about the feasibility of fulfilling poll assurances made by political parties, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Saturday and made it clear that the matter is, however, sub judice.

Political parties have a right to make promises in their election manifestos and the electorate has a right to know if these are genuine and how these programmes could be funded, he said, adding the entire matter forms part of an ongoing case and the matter was sub judice.

At a press conference here, Rajiv Kumar, answering questions, said the Election Commission has prepared a ‘proforma’ to make parties to make a disclosure on their election promises. However, this aspect also relates to the pending court matter.

To a question on ‘fake news,’ he said, ‘today fake news is running as you mentioned that election dates have been announced,’ This fake news has, however, been countered within half an hour.

cVIGIL usage

Pointing out that cVIGIL, a mobile application developed by the ECI, will enable to report violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during elections, Rajiv Kumar said, "Some features of the App include allowing users to report violations MCC, provides a platform for citizens to participate in the electoral process, uses GPS to track the location of the violation, allows users to capture the live incidents only, tracks the progress of the complaint and features to report the case of MCC violation anonymously".

He said once the voter reports if there is any MCC violation in the cVIGIL App, the official will be there in the specified location within 100 minutes to check the violations of MCC.

"They (election authorities) will take action immediately", he said adding "complainants can also track the progress of your complaint in the App".

The CEC also urged the voters to use The Know Your Candidate (KYC) App, which will inform the voters of the details of any criminal cases filed against the candidate, the status of those cases, and the nature of the offenses.

The KYC app is a useful tool for citizens to make informed decisions about who to vote for.