No eligible voter left out during SIR, says chief election commissioner

Puducherry: Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said no eligible voter has been excluded and no ineligible person has been included in the final voters' list after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

"Purity of the electoral roll is the bedrock of democracy,'' Gyanesh Kumar told reporters in Puducherry on Wednesday. Kumar was in the Union territory leading a seven-member Election Commission of India (ECI) team to review preparedness for the upcoming assembly polls.


Outlining new initiatives to be introduced in the elections, Kumar said the commission had decided to set up mobile deposit counters at all polling booths. ECI would also print colour photographs of the candidates on the ballot units, following requests from people, who said they could not identify candidates in black-and-white photos.

Kumar said polling in Puducherry has been peaceful, fair and transparent with high voter turnout (above 85%) in the past and added that the Union territory has emerged as a model for the rest of the country in the conduct of elections. He said all polling stations (1,099) in Puducherry will be equipped with webcasting facilities.

To a query on the distribution of freebies by political parties ahead of the elections, Kumar said the commission will curb the malpractice once the model code of conduct comes into force. "We have issued strict directions to enforcement agencies to prevent such practices and to ensure a free, fair and transparent electoral process," he said.

Earlier, Kumar, along with election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, interacted with representatives of recognized national and state political parties and elicited their views and opinions in the interest of ensuring smooth conduct of polls. The seven-member team included deputy election commissioners Manish Garg, Pawan Kumar Sharma and Sanjay Kumar, and director general Ashish Goyal.