NO MANIFESTO IN PRE-POLL SILENCE

NEW DELHI : The election commission on Saturday said political parties cannot release their campaign manifesto during the 48 hour prepoll silence period. Polling will begin in seven phases next month, meaning with the new order, parties will not be able to release any manifesto in the two days preceding April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19.

The 48-hour silent period prohibits parties from campaigning in any form as part of the model code of conduct.

The model code of conduct applies to all parties and candidates, and it lays down curbs to ensure voting is not influenced through means such as bribing or intimidation. In 2014, the Congress complained to the EC after BJP released its Lok Sabha manifesto on the day of voting in the first phase.

30% of the same is to be counted, then that would mean that potentially 26 crore VVPAT slips would have to be counted. lt is significant to note herein that physìcal counting/verification of such a huge number of VVPAT slips would entail substantial expenditure and place an additional burden on the exchequer,” the affidavit said. Quoting another judgment of 2013, the EC continued: “It’s also not the opinion of the Supreme Court that the VVPAT printed paper slips needs to be mandatorily counted in respect of all polling stations.”

Jagdeep Chhokar of the Association for Democratic Reforms said, the present formula of counting VVPAT slips of only one randomly selected polling station in each assembly segment in the Lok Sabha polls, which is 0.44%, is not adequate.