The Election Commission has for the first time started using a mobile application that will help poll observers to submit reports.
The electoral body on Thursday held a meeting with more than 1,800 IAS, IPS and IRS officials, besides some others from the Central services, who are to be deployed as observers in the coming Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls.
“These officers are being deployed as general, police and expenditure observers,” said the Commission. They will get all the important notifications, alerts, and urgent messages through the “Observer App”. It will help them get their deployment status, download the ID card and update their profile.
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As the observers will be closely involved in real-time disposal of Model Code of Conduct and expenditure violation cases received through another mobile application “cVIGIL”, those details will also be available on the “Observer App.” The observers can make a written observation after the flying squads have investigated the matter.
Reminding the observers of their role, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said they needed to ensure that no mistakes were committed in the process of conducting elections. He said in the recent State elections, it took only a minuscule percentage of slippages in following the laid-down protocol for EVM-VVPAT procedures or missing out on few names from the electoral roll to undo all the good work they did.
Mr. Arora said in the changed times, abuse of money power and the social media had emerged has major challenges.
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Addressing the observers, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa said the cVIGIL app had helped empower every citizen. The Commission also could keep a close eye on Model Code violations through the mechanism and alert officials on the ground.
Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said the role of expenditure observers had become more crucial given the innovative methods of inducements being adopted to influence voters.