Newmai News Network Aizawl | October 5 Even though the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to declare dates for the assembly polls in Mizoram, Election department of Mizoram and its machinery are gearing up for polling to the 40-member state assembly, expected to be held in the last week of November, officials said on Friday. Preparations for the state assembly elections is going on in full swing across the state under state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), SB Shashank, the officials further said, adding the Election Commission of India is likely to declare the polling date in the next few days' time. As part of the preparations for the assembly elections, an orientation-cum-interaction programme of political parties for the upcoming general elections was successfully organised at the ATI Training Hall here on Friday. In the interaction programme chaired by Deputy CEO, H. Lianzela, SB Shashank (CEO) briefed representatives of various political parties about the ECI guidelines for this year’s elections. He said that Mizoram is "already well-known within and outside the country for its high standard of ethical voting and hoped that the legacy will be proudly continued in the coming state elections again". Among the various ECI guidelines to be followed, ‘Suvidha-Single Window Permission System’ has been newly introduced and will be used this year, in which any political party wishing to hold public meetings must first submit applications through Suvidha, the CEO said. Apart from this, Media Certification & Monitoring Committee (MCMC) will be formed at both district and state levels, and in addition, this year Appellate Authority will also be nominated where political parties/candidates may represent their pleas if their campaign videos/pictures/advertisements have been rejected by either the district or state MCMC, the CEO also said. He further informed the political party representatives that the ECI has fixed Rs 20 lakh as upper limit for election expense for each candidate. Mizoram state assembly elections will be monitored by general as well as expenditure observers, who will be camped at the state capital and districts till the whole polling process is concluded, the CEO added. During the orientation programme, political party representatives were briefed about various topics related to candidate nomination process, election expenditure monitoring, Suvidha-Single Window Permission System and Model Code of Conduct and Media Certification & Monitoring Committee. Election preparations are also going in full swing at district level. Training on use of EVM/VVPAT for the first-time voters was held at Lawngtlai along with mock poll on Thursday and ‘One Day Course on Police Training on Mizoram Legislative Assembly Election’ was also held at Serchhip the same day.
