New Delhi, Feb 8: New Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy today appealed to political parties to observe the 'spirit' of the code of conduct with immediate effect even as he dropped the hint that the polls for the 14th Lok Sabha would be completed within three months.
While expressing the Commission's 'desire' to hold simultaneous polls to the assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim, he said that the announcement of election schedules would not be delayed ''even by a day'' and that it would not clash with the central and state board examinations.
''We are well prepared for the elections,'' he said, and cited that there were sufficient number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and trained personnel to handle them. The electoral rolls would be updated with the qualifying date as January 01, 2004, by the end of this month in most states.
Flanked by election commissioners B B Tandon and N Gopalaswamy, he said the Commission's endeavour was to reduce the number of phases of holding Lok Sabha elections from last time's five. However, its possibility depended on the availability of Para-Military Forces, which would be deployed in sufficient strength in naxalite dominated areas, that too well ahead of polls, to build confidence among the voters.
Even while underlining that the election commission did not have the authority to enforce the code of conduct before the announcement of the poll schedule, Krishnamurthy said ''I only appeal to all political parties to observe the spirit of the code of conduct from now onwards in the interests of improving the quality of democracy.''
Bureau Report