English
ਮਾਫ਼ ਕਰਨਾ, ਇਹ ਖਬਰ ਤੁਹਾਡੀ ਬੇਨਤੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਵਿੱਚ ਉਪਲਬਧ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੈ। ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਇੱਥੇ ਦੇਖੋ।
Elaborate arrangements shall be made for the conduct of free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections: Dr Dalip Singh
Chandigarh, December 3
Haryana State Election Commissioner, Dr. Dalip Singh, while addressing a press conference today said that elaborate arrangements shall be made for the conduct of free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections. Adequate police force shall be deployed to maintain law and order at the polling stations and in sensitive and hyper sensitive areas for conducting the elections.
Dr. Singh also stated that the expenditure limit of the contesting candidates, contesting the election of the seat of Mayor and members of Municipal Corporation and President and Members of Municipal Council and Committee has been revised. As per the revision, the election expenditure limit for Mayor has been increased from Rs. 20 lakh to Rs. 22 lakh. The election expenditure limit for Member Corporation has been increased from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 5.50 lakh. The election expenditure limit for Member Municipal Council has been increased from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 3.30 lakh. The election expenditure limit for Member Municipal Committee has been increased from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 2.25 lakh. He shared that the election expenditure limit of President, Municipal Council and Committees has been fixed at Rs. 15 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh respectively.
Dr. Singh further said that all the contesting candidates are required to maintain account of election expenditure and submit the same within 30 days from the date of declaration of election result to the Deputy Commissioner or an officer authorized by the State Election Commission, failing which the defaulting candidate shall be liable to be disqualified for 5 years. After the last general election of these municipalities (except Sonipat) total 122 contested candidates have been disqualified by the Commission for non-submission of election expenditure statements within a stipulated time period.
Dr. Singh stated that the election of municipalities will be conducted by the use of EVMs. The photograph of the candidate will be printed in the panel and will appear on the right side of the name in between the name and symbol of the candidate. The ballot paper for Mayor and President shall be of pink colour and for members it shall be of white colour.
Dr. Singh further said that the NOTA (None of the above) option will be used in these elections. He said that the NOTA is to be treated as a “Fictional Electoral Candidate’ while declaring the election results. If in election, all the contesting candidates individually receive lesser votes than the ‘Fictional Electoral Candidate’ i.e. NOTA, then none of the contesting candidate will be declared as elected. In case contesting candidate and the ‘Fictional Electoral Candidate’ i.e. NOTA receive equal valid votes; then the contesting candidate (not NOTA) will be declared as elected.
Dr. Singh further clarified that no candidate will be eligible to file his nomination if he was a contesting candidate in first election in which his votes were less than ‘Fictional Electoral Candidate’ i.e. NOTA. If in re-election, NOTA again get highest votes, then no further election will be held and contesting candidate with highest votes (excluding NOTA) shall be declared as elected.
He said that the Model code of conduct in respect of these municipal elections shall come into force from December 3, 2020. No Officer or Official connected with the election work will be transferred till the completion of election process.
Dr. Singh stated that State Election Commission will for the first time start to get nomination through online medium on a trial basis at Panchkula only. Besides this, an e-Dashboard will also be made available at the website with all the information about the candidates’ particulars, nominations, results etc.
Dr. Singh added that after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic in India, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and State Governments are issuing guidelines from time to time. He said that The State Election Commission, Haryana after considering the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India has sent the same to all the Deputy Commissioners for strict compliance.
He said that Mandatory sanitization of the Polling Station will be done a day before the poll. Every person involved in election activity and come for casting vote will wear a face mask. Those electors who are not carrying the mask will be provided masks at the entry point of the polling station. Thermal Scanning of all persons shall be made at the entry point of polling station. Sanitizers will be kept inside the booth at appropriate locations with clear directions for use by voters. Sanitizer, soap and water will be made available at the polling station. Hand gloves will be provided to the voter, for signing on the voter register and pressing EVM button for voting. Besides this, last one hour time has been fixed for COVID-19 patients and those having virus symptoms to cast their vote. . Sector Magistrates will coordinate this in their allocated polling stations, shared Dr. Dalip Singh.
He said that the Deputy Commissioners have also been authorized to issue any further guidelines for the safety of general public during the election process by taking into account local conditions if required. Dr. Singh also appealed to the voters to participate in the elections to elect the members of municipalities for strengthening the democracy at grass root level.
