New Delhi, Oct 06: The forthcoming assembly elections in five states will witness many firsts like the mandatory filing of affidavits by candidates showing their assets, liabilities, educational qualification and criminal records and use of proxy voting for armed forces personnel. As part of the efforts of the commission to disseminate the information contained in the affidavits to citizens, instructions have been issued to returning officers to make available copies of the affidavits freely to other candidates, general public and media on the very day the nomination is filed by a candidate. Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh told a press conference here that district election officers have been instructed to compile the information of affidavits for all assembly segments falling in their district and make available the consolidated information for the district to any person desirous of obtaining such information on payment of copying charges.
The commission had brought into effect on March 27 this year the directions of the Supreme Court on affidavits to be filed by all the candidates along with their nomination papers For the first time, proxy voting facilities would be given to the personnel of the armed forces in addition to the postal ballot facilities in this election.
Buoyed by the success of conducting polls in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat by drawing personnel from outside, Lyngdoh said in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan 50 per cent of the presiding officers and 50 per cent of the polling officers in every district will be from outside the district.
In Delhi, the presiding officers would be Central government officials. Bureau Report