EC reviews poll preparation in five states, tells CEOs to adopt voter-centric approach 

Express News Service
NEW DELHI:  The Election Commission on Wednesday held a meeting to review preparations for next year’s Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur. 

The Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) from the five states gave a detailed presentation to the EC on various aspects of the conduct of elections, including the health of electoral roll, the availability of budget, human resources, Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation programme, arrangements being made at polling stations and IT applications, etc. 

In the preliminary meeting, issues such as secuirty requirements and the steps to be taken to comply with the Covid-19 guidelines were discussed. The meeting also focused on various thematic issues including Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF) at the polling stations, ease of registration arrangements for voter facilitation, electoral roll, timely resolution of grievances, arrangements of EVMs/VVPATs, postal ballot facility for senior citizens (80+) and PwDs, Covid mitigation plan, training of polling staff and extensive voter outreach amongst others. 

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said transparency and impartiality are the hallmark of the election process. He added that issues and challenges may be different in each state, but the election planning needs to have a voter-centric approach and participative decision making involving all stakeholders.

CEC Sushil Chandra stressed on the significance of the purity of the electoral roll and asked the CEOs for quick redressal of all pending applications with regard to voter registration. He also emphasised the need for rationalisation of polling stations keeping in view the Covid-19 pandemic. He reiterated the need to have basic infrastructure in all polling stations.

Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, while interacting with the CEOs, emphasised that periodic and comprehensive monitoring of each aspect of the election should be done by the CEOs of all the poll-going states. He highlighted the need to activate ground level election machinery in the five states to start the preparations.

Focus on Covid-19Covid mitigation plan, training of poll staff and extensive voter outreach were amongst the major  issues discussed, according to an official statement