Committed to ensuring free, fair, transparent polls: CEC

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Shimla, September 24

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said that the endeavour of the Election Commission of India (ECI) would be to ensure free, accessible, transparent and money-free Vidhan Sabha polls in the state.

Kumar, addressing a press conference here today, said special care had been taken to make the polling booths, friendly for persons with disabilities (PwD) and for those above 80 years.

“We have made a provision, where people above 80 years of age and PwD can exercise the option of voting from their homes, where the polling staff will come personally,” he said. He added that all 7,881 booths would have ramps for PwD, water and toilet facilities for the convenience of voters.

“The issue of early snowfall in three tribal Assembly segments by November 15 has been brought to the notice of the ECI by all political parties. We will keep this in mind while deciding the poll dates,” the Chief Election Commissioner said.

Kumar said that the ECI would also make special efforts to tackle the problem of urban apathy towards voting in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha elections.

“It has normally been seen that urban voters, including large number of youth do not cast their vote resulting in a low turnout in urban areas. Although the polling in last assembly polls was 73 per cent but there were 277 polling booths with very low polling percentage,” he said.

The CEC said that though not casting your vote was not an offence under law but this time all the employees, who would not cast their vote, despite a holiday on the polling day, would be later summoned and given a motivational talk, stressing the importance of voting.

“Boycott of polls is not a solution, be it for any reason. At times people do not vote because it is a holiday while others boycott polls in protest against non-fulfilment of their demands,” he added.

He also cautioned people not to get misled by wrong narrative or fake news. “The authenticity of the EVMs’ should not be doubted. EVMs have been used by 360 crore voters in 142 Assembly and four General Elections since 2004,” Kumar said.

In the last 11 Assembly elections, there had been merely four cases of snag in EVMs. He added that in order to ensure complete transparency, there would be webcasting from 4,000 polling stations on the polling day.

He said 142 polling booths would be managed by women staff, including police personnel. “This is to send out a strong message of women empowerment,” he said.