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UP to have 7-phase polling in Feb; one-day poll in Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand
New Delhi, December 24, 2011
Chief Election Commissioner S.Y Quraishi addressing a press conference to announce the assembly election schedule in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and H.S. Brahma are also seen.
Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls in seven phases between February 4 and 28 to elect a new state legislative assembly while Manipur will have single-phase polling on January 28, Punjab and Uttarakhand on January 30 and Goa on March 3.
Of the 403 seats in the UP Assembly, polling for 60 seats will be held in the first phase on February 4; 55 seats in the second phase on February 8; 59 seats in the third phase on February 11; 56 seats in the fourth phase on February 15; 56 seats in the fifth phase on February 19; 49 seats in the sixth phase on February 23 and 68 seats in the seventh and last phase on February 28.
There are 117 seats in the Punjab Assembly, 70 in Uttarakhand, 60 in Manipur and 40 in Goa.
Counting of votes will be taken up in all the five states on March 4 and all the results are expected to be in by that evening, according to the schedule announced by Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi here today.
Coming as they do roughly half-way through the second term of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre, the polls are being seen as a crucial test of strength for both the Congress-led UPA as well as all the other major political parties ahead of the 2014 elections to the Lok Sabha.
Of particular interest will be the performance of all the key players - Chief Minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, which sends as many as 80 members to the Lok Sabha.
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Also keenly watched will be the performance of the Congress, whose General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, often projected as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate of the future, has been campaigning hard to revive its fortunes in the state against heavy odds.
The term of the present Assembly in Goa will expire on June 14, Manipur on March 15, Punjab on March 14, Uttar Pradesh on May 20 and Uttarakhand on March 12.
The electoral rolls of all the existing Assembly Constituencies in the five States are being revised with reference to 01.01.2012 as the qualifying date, and shall be finally published on 02.01.2012.
As per the draft publication of electoral rolls, the number of electors in the five states are: Goa 1011673; Manipur 1677270; Punjab 17433408; Uttar Pradesh 111916689; and Uttarakhand 57401483.
The Election Commission said that, based on the assessment of the ground situation, Central Police Forces (CPF) and State Armed Police (SAP) drawn from other States will be deployed during the elections. The CPF and SAP will be used generally for safeguarding the polling stations, the electors, poll-material and the polling personnel. Besides, these forces will be used for securing the strong rooms where the EVMs are stored pending counting and for securing the counting centres.
It said had been issuing instructions from time to time with regard to the advance preventive measures to be taken by the District Magistrates and Police authorities to maintain law & order and to create an atmosphere conducive for conduct of free and fair elections. The Commission will be constantly monitoring the ground situation closely and will take appropriate measures to ensure peaceful, free and fair polls in these States.
The Commission said it would deploy General Observers in adequate numbers to ensure smooth conduct of elections. The Observers will be asked to keep a close watch on every stage of the electoral process to ensure free and fair elections.
The Commission has also decided to appoint adequate number of Expenditure Observers and Assistant Expenditure Observers who will exclusively monitor the election expenditure of the contesting candidates. For greater transparency and for ease of monitoring of Election Expenses, candidates would be required to open a separate bank account and incur their election expenses from that very account. Comprehensive instructions for the purpose of effective monitoring of the election expenditure of the candidates, including formation of flying squads, video surveillance teams in the constituency, involvement of Investigation Directorates of Income Tax Department and so on have been separately issued.
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The format for filing of affidavits regarding criminal backgrounds. assets, liabilities and educational qualification of the candidates have been modified to include a summary sheet.
To deal with the issue of Paid News, Monitoring Committees have been set up at District, State and Commission level and necessary instructions have been issued to the District Election Officers and the CEOs of the five poll-going States. Representatives of political parties and media organizations of the pollgoing States have also been briefed.
In addition to General Observers, the Commission will also deploy Micro-Observers to observe the poll proceedings in the polling stations on the poll day in selected critical polling stations. They will be chosen from Central Government/Central PSUs officials. Micro-Observers will observe the proceedings at the polling stations on the poll day right from the mock poll to the completion of poll and the process of sealing of EVMs and other documents to ensure that all instructions of the Commission are complied with by the Polling Parties and the Polling Agents.
These Micro-Observers will work directly under the control and supervision of the General Observer. They will be tasked to ensure purity of polling process and will report to the General Observers directly about any vitiation of the poll proceedings in their allotted polling stations.
NNN
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