Assembly Elections-2023 Chief Electoral Officer reviewed the preparations before the voting day
Jaipur. Chief Electoral Officer Shri Praveen Gupta on Saturday took stock of the preparations before the voting day in the state through video conferencing. He conducted a detailed review of the election preparations by VC with all the District Election Officers, Sub District Election Officers and Election Department officials and gave instructions to ensure free, fair and peaceful voting in the state.
As part of the review of pre-preparations for the smooth conduct of the election process, he gave necessary guidelines regarding preparations for nomination of candidates, deployment of central police forces, law and order, surveillance of border areas and preparations for EVM randomization. Under the sweep activities, he included awareness among the voters in the areas with low voting percentage in the last elections, necessary arrangements for the disabled and senior citizen voters, preparations regarding the facilitation centre, arrangement of postal ballots for the voters related to essential services, assisted voting. Necessary instructions were also given regarding the arrangement of the centers and ensuring necessary basic facilities at all the polling centres.
He also directed to take alert and prompt action at the level of all monitoring teams like accounts team, FST, SST, VST, VVT for effective monitoring of election expenditure.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that the process of filling nomination forms by the candidates will start from October 30. After checking these by the concerned RO, arrangements for uploading the nomination papers and affidavits in a timely manner should be ensured by the District Election Officers. He also gave instructions regarding webcasting at sensitive polling stations on polling day and availability of QR code scanners for pre-counting of postal ballots.
Giving instructions to pay special attention to law and order, Shri Gupta said that a close watch should be kept on criminals and people with criminal tendencies. He also directed to prepare a detailed and well-organized plan for the deployment of central police forces on the voting day. He said that such places should be identified in the border areas, which are sensitive from the point of view of influencing the election process. He said that all the necessary arrangements including food, lights, tents for the polling parties on the polling day should be reviewed in advance.
The Chief Electoral Officer inquired about the progress of additional FLC of EVMs and also reviewed the preparations for the first randomization of EVMs on 2-3 November and the second randomization on 14 November.
He reviewed the work of the media cell in the district. He also gave instructions to take immediate action on the issues of fake news and paid news.
Shri Gupta said that sweep activities should be conducted effectively to make voters aware about their voting rights. He said that 24386 polling stations with low turnout in the last elections have been identified in the state. SVEEP activities should be expedited to increase the voting percentage and motivate women voters.
For this, the state is informed through print, electronic and digital media about voters filling pledge forms, voter assistants at booth level, booth awareness groups, activation of Hala Toli/Jaago Toli during the last 54 hours of voting, use of EVM VVPAT. Work should be done to make voters aware throughout the year. He said that for departmental convergence, a list of booth level personnel should be prepared and information should be exchanged effectively through videos, podcasts and other sweep materials. He also gave instructions for publicity regarding polling stations run entirely by women personnel or disabled personnel or youth personnel.
He said that wide publicity should be done to make the disabled people aware about voting. In order to ensure that disabled and senior voters do not face any inconvenience in exercising their franchise, wheel chairs should be available in sufficient numbers at the polling stations and NCC and NSS volunteers should be ready to provide all possible assistance to the disabled voters. He also reviewed the number of people using postal ballots related to essential services and the preparations for delivering postal ballots from one district to another.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that expenditure observers will reach the respective assembly constituencies on October 29 for the purpose of monitoring the election expenditure. The Liaison Officer should coordinate with the concerned Expenditure Supervisor and ensure necessary arrangements. He directed that the rate list of expenditure items and other relevant documents should be made available to the supervisors.
He said that to monitor the election expenditure, ensure that all the teams like accounts team, FST, SST, VST, VVT are working properly. He said that after the announcement of elections, hold a meeting with the political parties in the district and ensure that they provide information about the rates of various items. He said that publicity should be given about the checking measures related to bringing and carrying of cash during elections. He also instructed that
