Stricter expenditure monitoring guidelines will be in force during the 2011 general elections to five State Legislative Assemblies, including Tamil Nadu, Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Quraishi on Thursday.
Addressing media persons after reviewing preparatory arrangements for the elections with officials and police officers in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Quraishi said the new and exhaustive guidelines trialled in the Bihar elections that included separate bank accounts for election expenditure, deployment of expenditure observers, shadow registers and video surveillance teams would be further tightened in 2011.
“We are in the process of fine-tuning the guidelines and issuing them to officials within the next 4 to 5 weeks. With every election exercise we are learning something new and evolving,” he said.
Stating that the measures in Bihar had led to the detection of 86 cases of “paid news” and candidates' confessions to the offence, the CEC said the Commission was now exploring legal possibilities of launching criminal proceedings against the candidates as the practice amounted to deceit and fraud on the electorate and interfered with the free and fair electoral process.
Non-committal on a likely time-frame for holding the elections, Mr. Qureshi said however that the five States would be “bunched together”. General elections are also scheduled in Puducherry, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam. On the campaigning on television by political parties that own channels even after the cut-off limit, Mr. Quraishi said “we'll examine legal options” to curb the practice and ensure a level playing field.
Earlier, Mr. Quraishi and Deputy CEC Alok Shukla had consultations with national and regional political parties. The common complaints were about the partisan behaviour of some officers, the misuse of money power and inducements such as liquor and distribution of materials and the lack of effective action on earlier complaints, Mr. Quraishi said.
The CEC said these concerns had been communicated to officials during the meeting. He pointed out that while two booth level officers had been suspended in Madurai for distribution of Electors' Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) to political parties and a police case ordered against the offenders, officials had been told to be above board and not indulge in partisan actions.
District Collectors, Superintendents of Police and other senior officers have been cautioned to strictly adhere to the instructions of the Election Commission.
The CEC who also held discussions with the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and Director General of Police, said he had been given an assurance that issues such as vacancies in the posts of election officials and the police force would be addressed soon and the new personnel given training.
The final publication date of electoral rolls in the State was January 10, and 15 days thereafter, voter cards are scheduled to be ready for booth-level distribution.
The celebration of January 25 as National Voters' Day would be used to distribute EPICs at public functions and also to enrol new voters who attained the age of 18 years on January 1.
While the State had a healthy elector-to-population ratio of 67 per cent, a nearly similar gender ratio and EPIC distribution rate of 99.77 per cent, the CEC said the loss of EPICs which was as high as 25 per cent was a matter of concern, he said.
