EC gears-up for Assembly elections

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">MUMBAI: Chief election commissioner T S Krishnamurthy has urged citizens groups and non-government organisations to create voter awareness and voter participation for the forthcoming state assembly elections.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Krishnamurthy was speaking during an interactive meet on "Civic society and the forthcoming state assembly elections" organised by the Indian Merchant''s Chamber (IMC) and Action for good governance and network in India (AGNI) on Friday.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Krishnamurthy said the EC was doing its level best for the smooth sailing of the forthcoming assembly elections."There have been misconceptions and false rumours about the electronic voting machines (EVMs), but I can assure the citizens that the EVMs cannot be manipulated or tampered," Krishnamurthy said.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">He said anybody can come and check the functioning of the EVMs. Talking about the working of the EC, Krishnamurthy said the EC has enormous powers regarding the code of conduct. "But there are certain loopholes. We need to have certain reforms," he said.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Krishnamurthy said they have requested cellphone operators to send assembly election reminders to people. "Likewise, we have also asked them to remind people about the dates for enrolling their names," he said.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">AGNI chairman B G Deshmukh said elections are the foundation of democracy. "However, the success of elections lies in people''s participation. Unfortunately, today a large number of electors do not even exercise their right to vote, which in turn has deteriorated the quality of elected representative and the democracy," Deshmukh said.</span></div> </div>