Ahead of the Parliamentary elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner (EC) Arun Goel chaired a meeting with 10 political parties in Chennai on Friday. They also reviewed the preparedness for general elections to the Lok Sabha. Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo was also present.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting with the CEC and EC, DMK’s R.S. Bharathi said his party objected to what it called a new practice in which the vote cast on the ballot has to go to the control unit only after it crossed the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) unit. “This is illegal,” he said. If the vote cast goes directly to the control unit, it would help in transparency, he said and contended: “To say that the VVPAT would not be open for access during the counting process is creating doubts. The Election Commission itself is accepting that there is a chance for 1-2% error with this.”
Arguing that there was a “chance for tampering”, Mr. Bharathi said people would have doubts as to whether there were any “ulterior motive” behind this. He said they did not get satisfactory answers.
AIADMK’s D. Jayakumar said that the State police was “mostly acting in favour of the ruling party”. Despite having flagged this issue on several occasions, there was “no use”, he said and further urged the Election Commission to deploy personnel of the Central police and paramilitary forces for the election work. Names of dead people were still in the electoral rolls, while names of several eligible people were not included, he charged and said that sensitive polling booths should be identified and additional personnel deployed there along with cameras installed in the booths.
BJP’s Karate Thiagarajan said his party insisted that cameras be installed in all polling booths and adequate paramilitary personnel deployed in sensitive polling booths. Star campaigners should be given permission without any delay, he said.
Congress’ K. Chandramohan said that his party favoured one-phase election in Tamil Nadu and that transparency should be maintained while conducting elections. He also said that basic amenities should be ensured in polling booths.
DMDK’s B. Parthasarathy said his party insisted on holding single-phase elections and further recalled that his party has been demanding the linking of Aadhaar card with the EPIC card in all constituencies. He said paramilitary personnel should be deployed.
CPI’s Veerapandian recalled the recent incidents in Delhi and Chandigarh, which he contended were shocking and a dent on the image of the Commission and urged that such incidents should not be allowed. He said permission should not be granted for using places of worship for election campaigning. His party supported one-phase election, he said.
CPI (M)‘s Sampath and Arumuga Nayinar represented their party in the meeting. They said that the Commission should involve officials with integrity in election-related work. They also underlined the importance of transparency in the elections.
Representatives from Aam Aadmi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party also took part in the meeting and expressed their opinion. In the afternoon, District Collectors/District Election Officers, Returning Officers and senior police officers also participated in the meeting with officials of the Commission.
