Election commission of India visits Manipur

Imphal | August 7 : A 3-member team of the Election Commission of India (ECI) visited Imphal on a one-day trip. The state is scheduled to go to the polls early next year. The team led by election commissioner SY Quraishi held meetings with state political parties, besides meeting the chief secretary, home secretary, DGP, district election officers and other official at the main conference hall of the secretariat.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, the election commissioner noted that his team had consultations with seven political parties of the state in order to include their suggestions in the run up to the assembly election.
He said that the political parties complained of rampant use of money and muscle powers during the last assembly election and sought the deployment of paramilitary forces to rein in malpractices such as proxy voting, high expenditure, paid news etc. The political parties also suggested making the forthcoming assembly election a one day affair.
The election commissioner said that a committee will be appointed with a recommendation of Press Council of India (PCI) to oversee media contents like paid news etc and recommend action against the guilty party during the forthcoming assembly election.
The visiting team also comprised election commissioners VS Sampath and HS Brahma, deputy election commissioner JP Prakash and Alok Shukla and director general expenditure monitoring PK Das.