Panaji, December 16, 2016 …. The Election Commission of India comprising Dr Nasim Zaidi, Shri A. K. Joti and Shri Omprakash Rawat who were on a two day official visit to the state of Goa today took a firsthand assessment of the advance planning and preparations made by the state election machinery for the forthcoming Assembly Elections.
During the visit the commission met various political parties to understand the issues and concerns. The Commission noted their suggestions for holding free, fair and peaceful elections in the state. The Commission also reviewed work of DCs, SSPs, and DIGs/IGs and discussed issues with Government level officials including DGP, Home Secretary, and the Chief Secretary and other senior officers of the state. The Commission also discussed strategy with various Enforcement agencies.
The political parties demanded that entire electoral process must be conducted in a free and fair manner and level playing field be insured. The political parties also demanded the demonstration of new VVPATs to political parties and voters to make them aware about the functioning of the machine.
Giving this information at a press conference, at Bambolim near Panaji, the chief election commissioner Dr. Nasim Zaidi said, most of the political parties have given their suggestion on scheduling of elections and the commission has taken note of that.
Deliberating on the summary revision and electoral roll Mr Zaidi said, special summary revision 2017 has been extensively carried out in the state with education of masses and SVEEP activities. He said, 46700 new voters have been added in the state while 15293 applications have been received for deletion of names from the voters list. The Chief Election Commissioner also informed that the date of summary revision has been extended up to 24 Dec 2016. Mr Zaidi said, as of now, total number of voters in the state are 11, 07,431 out of which 812 are service voters. For the first time 40 Vanarmare Tribe people have been registered as voter.
As far as polling stations are concerned he said, there are a total 1642 polling stations at 1163 polling locations. The commission has also directed to set up all women managed polling stations wherever possible to motivate women participation in the electoral process. The Commission has also decided to use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in all 40 Assembly Constituencies.
The Chief Election Commissioner also informed that SAMADHAN an online grievance registration and redress system shall be put in place to provide a unified and integrated platform for the registration and tracking all kind of complaints. While SUVIDHA another single window system for the political parties and the candidates seeking different permissions during election phase shall be operationalised. Shri A. K. Joti and Shri Omprakash Rawat both election commissioners also attended the press conference.
