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Polls may held in February-March
Elections to constitute the 12th Lok Sabha are likely to be held between the third week of February and the first week of March to enable the new government to transact its financial business.
Announcing this today, Election Commissioner G V Krishnamurty said a notification in this regard is expected to be issued by the Election Commission on or before January 5.
However, elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Lahaul Spiti in
Himachal Pradesh are likely to be deferred in view of the climatic
conditions.
Krishnamurty said along with the Lok Sabha election, the
EC would try to conduct assembly polls in Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
He said the Commission proposes to conduct three-day elections
in states with more than 40 seats. There would two-day polls in states having less than 40 seats. A day's poll would be held in all
the seven Union Territories and smaller states where the number of
Lok Sabha seats was around 15. This would enable the Commission to conduct elections effectively with less number of security personnel, he
said.
The elections would be held on the basis of revised electoral rolls, which would be published by January 5. Even in Assam, the poll would be held on the basis of revised electoral rolls, he said.
The Commission would meet tomorrow to discuss poll arrangements.
While finalising the election schedule, the Commission
would take into account the views of the central and state
governments, availability of paramilitary forces, teachers, school
buildings, school and college examinations, weather, festivals
and agricultural operations.
School buildings were necessary for setting up polling booths and the
government employees, including teachers, would be required to
conduct the elections, Krishnamurty said.
The Commission expected a five to 10 per cent growth in the electorate, necessitating an increase in the number of polling stations and poll personnel.
In the last general election, held in April-March 1996, 900,000 polling stations were set up. A total of 4.5 million personnel were involved to cater to some 600 million voters.
The poll expenditure was estimated at Rs 6 billion. This excluded the expenditure incurred by the candidates. The expenses were likely to go up to Rs 8 billion this time, he said.
Though the Commission had requested the government to revise the candidates's expenditure limit from its present level of Rs 450,000 to at least Rs 1.5 million, the government had not taken any decision in this regard, Krishnamurty said. ''The Commission is thus bound to go by the existing cost ceiling.''
He said the Commission would further tighten measures in a bid to check the entry of criminals in the election fray. Candidates would be asked to file a new affidavit, seeking more information on any heinous crimes, dacoity, robbery, kidnapping, rape, waging war against India and collecting arms. They would also be asked to state whether they had ever been disqualified on grounds of corrupt practices and
crimes.
He said the Commission would soon interact with the state
governments to gather details about criminals. This would enable the
Commission to organise raids against illicit arms manufacturers and seize such weapons.
UNI
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