Lok Sabha elections will be held on time, says CEC
LUCKNOW: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora on Friday voiced confidence that Lok Sabha elections will be held on time notwithstanding this week’s tensions between India and Pakistan, including air skirmishes over the Line of Control in Kashmir.
Arora, who is here with a team of Election Commission of India (ECI) officials on a three-day visit to review poll preparations in Uttar Pradesh, told a press conference that the ECI was ready to conduct the elections on time. The schedule for elections to the 543-member Lok Sabha will be announced soon at a press conference in Delhi, Arora said,
The election schedule is prepared taking into consideration the availability of security forces to ensure peaceful voting, transportation logistics, festivals and examination schedules.
“We already have held several rounds of meetings with the ministry of home affairs on the avail-
ability of central paramilitary forces,” he said.
The CE Cal so said a committee had been constituted to monitor content on social media during the polls. The election watchdog has been concerned about the possible influence and spread of fake news and biased and inflammatory content on social networks have on the election outcome. Twitter, Facebook and Google have said they had put in place measures to check such content during the elections. An app — C-Vigil — has been launched for registering voters’ complaints. The CEC said officials had been directed to take action in cases of hate speech even before the implementation of the model code of conduct that comes into effect after the election schedule is announced. He also said the ECI has amended Form 26, an affidavit that is required to be submitted by candidates filing their nomination papers for contesting elections, when it comes to setting out details of their assets.
“Now candidates will have to give details of assets of husband/ wife, sons and daughters in the country as well as abroad. He will also have to submit details of five years of income tax returns along with PAN numbers. If any anomaly is detected by the income tax department, the details will be displayed on the website of the election commission,” said the CEC.
He said the amendment had been made after the law ministry approved it.
Arora said political parties have selectively targeted EVMs. “When the poll result is in their favour, it is termed worthy but if the results are not according to their expectations, doubts are raised over the machines,” he said, reminding political parties that EVMs have now been in use for two decades.