Manipur CEO reviews poll preparations ahead of election

Our Correspondent

Imphal, Jan. 13 (EMN): Ahead of the upcoming Assembly election, the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Manipur, Rajesh Agrawal on Thursday convened a meeting with recognised national and state political parties at the conference hall of CEO Manipur, Lamphelpat.

The CEO informed that meetings with political parties will be held weekly on a regular basis.

During the meeting, the officer briefed on model code of conduct, Covid norms, criminal antecedents, election expenditure, EVMs and VVPATs, identity proof for voting, amongst others.

With the enforcement of model code of conduct, defacement of government, public properties and unauthorised defacement of private property will be complied within specified timelines. Altogether 53,252 defacements were removed so far, while photographs of political functionaries were also removed from government websites, he said.

Political parties were also informed that no road show, pad-yatra, cycle/bike/vehicle rally and procession, physical rally of political parties or probable candidates or any other group related to election shall be allowed till Jan. 15, 2022. Rallies and meetings shall be allowed only in earmarked places and with prior permissions of district administration.

Stating that election agents/polling agents/counting agents without double dose vaccination shall not be allowed on duty, the officer appealed to all political parties to check on the vaccination status of their respective polling agents. He also informed that necessary arrangements would be made by the office of the CEO, Manipur for Covid vaccination.

The CEO continued that as per Supreme Court order, political parties/candidates should publish criminal antecedents in newspapers/TV on three occasions. Booklet on criminal antecedents was also provided to the representatives of political parties. For publishing criminal antecedents, a list of newspapers and TV channels will be notified soon, he stated.

He also urged the candidates to appoint election expenditure agents to ensure timely filing of expenditure statements/accounts. Regarding P-2 and P-3 polling stations, he said that intermediate strong rooms had been identified and would be notified to all candidates and political parties by DEOs.

Representatives of political parties also expressed their views, suggestions and grievances during the meeting.