Dimapur, September 9 (MExN): With Nagaland’s general election due in March 2013, the Nagaland Pradesh congress Committee (NPCC) has exacted assurance from the Election Commission of India that the State’s polls will have strong safeguards for free and fair elections.
Some of the assurances the election commission is said to have given include empowering the security forces to screen identity cards and photos, installing security cameras and correcting the entire electoral roll of Nagaland before the elections.
The Political Affairs Committee of the NPCC led by its Convenor K. Therie and AICC Member Asu Keyho met with the full bench of the Election Commission of India on September 7 in New Delhi. The ECI team was led by the Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath, both the Members of ECI and other designated officials including Dy. Election Commissioner Sudhir Tripathy who is in-charge of Nagaland.
“The main objective of the meeting was to apprise the ECI for free and fair election in Nagaland. For many years genuine voter were not able to vote as the queue never opened for genuine voters,” the NPCCC said in a press released received here today. The NPCC leader told the commission that in the next election genuine voters should be given comfortable opportunity to vote for and elect their own representatives.
The PAC of NPCC set before the commission a number of demands to the Election Commission of India: ensuring photo electoral roll and ID card in the election; directing the Election department of Nagaland for “suo-moto correction of errors/defective electoral roll like double/multiple entries, mismatch photos, underage enrolment, death, etc. detected in the draft electoral roll as per the provision under section 22 of the Representation of the People Act 1950.”
Other demands included empowering security forces to screen the identity of voters with photo electoral roll and finger marking with indelible ink before allowing voters to fall in queue within the polling perimeter; installing CCTVs in all polling stations
The Election Commission of India has assured the Congress that the commission will deliver photo electoral roll and Photo ID Card for use in the next election and all errors in the electoral roll will be corrected before the election. Likewise, draft photo-electoral roll will be published on 1st Oct of 2012. CEC also assured that electoral roll will be made available on the website of CEO Nagaland.
“Thereafter, another opportunity will be given to all political parties and individuals for inclusion and objection if any, and has appealed to all political parties and citizens to access the site for cooperation in cleaning the photo electoral roll,” the NPCC said quoting the commission members.
Further, the commission is said to have assured that security forces shall be empowered to screen identity of voters with photo electoral roll. “A voter has to produce genuine photo ID card matching his/her image with photo electoral roll to stand in queue within the polling perimeter. The CEC also disclosed that second screening will be done inside the polling station with CCTV coverage in presence of polling officials and polling agents.”
The NPCC has appealed to all the NGOs in Nagaland to involve in screening the electoral roll ‘which is the basic foundation for clean election.’
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