Poll expenditure to be considered only after filing of nomination, says CEC

The poll expenditure the candidates will be taken into account after filling of nomination, said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar in response to a question that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already announced candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections slated in November. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar (File Photo) Addressing a press conference at Kushabhau Thackrey International Convention Centre on Wednesday, Kumar said, “Many political parties demanded clarity on expenditure on publicity after the early release of the l of candidates a party. According to the rule, the poll expenditure includes the money spent on the election campaign from the filing of the nomination to 48 hours before voting. The candidates have to keep an account of expenditure only after filing of nomination.” The BJP on August 18 had released a l of its 39 candidates for the Assembly polls even though the Congress has asked about 100 leaders to start campaigning in their respective constituencies. On ‘one nation- one election’, the chief election commissioner said they were always ready to hold elections as per the Constitutional norms. Kumar also launched KYC (Know Your Candidate) containing details about the candidates, including criminal records and also an explanation the political party as to why the candidate with a criminal record has been given a ticket. Senior citizens and the physically challenged will get the facility of casting their votes at home only booking at the Sakshan App. They will have to fill out Form 12D within five days of nomination to avail the facility of voting from home, said the chief commissioner. Kumar further informed about the cVIGIL app to file complaints related to the dribution of things, money, liquor and others. The name of the complainant will be kept confidential, he said. The final voter l for the Assembly elections will be published on October 4. The names can be added to the voter l till September 11. This time, the focus will be on increasing female participation in voting. The webcasting will be done at more than 50% of polling booths, said Kumar, adding that 5000 polling booths will be managed women. “There are 108 constituencies where the sex ratio is less than 936, so 920 polling booths have been identified where the percentage of women voting is less than 10%. It has been asked to increase female participation at 6,920 polling stations,” Kumar said. As of now, there are a total of 50.52 million voters in the state of which 20.85 million are men, 20.67 million are women and 1,336 transgender voters. The state has 750,000 voters aged above 80 years and 6,180 voters above 100 years of age. As many as 1.86 million are first-time voters. ABOUT THE AUTHOR She is a senior reporter based at Bhopal. She covers higher education, social issues, youth affairs, woman and child development related issues, sports and business & industries. …view detail