Election Commission of India (ECI) Archives - Lokmarg

Karnataka Elections To Be Held On May 10, Counting On May 13

By LokMarg 29th March 2023

The Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the Karnataka Assembly elections. The polling would take place in a single phase on May 10, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Wednesday.

The counting of votes will be done on May 13, the CEC said in a press conference here.
Detailing the data of the electors, the CEC said that there are a total of 5.21 crores in the state and the number of 100 plus voters is 16,976.

He informed that over 58,000 polling stations would be set up across the state.

“There are 224 Assembly constituencies of which 36 are reserved for the SCs and 15 for the STs. The total electorates in the state are 5,21,73,579 crores of which males are 2.62 crores and females are 2.59 crores. The total number of 80 plus electors is 12.15 lakhs. It is an increase of 32 percent from 2018. It also includes 16,976 proud electors who are 100 plus. The number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) has increased to 5.55 lakhs. This is an increase of close to 150 percent,” Kumar said.

He said that the first-time voters have increased from 2018-19 by 9.17 lakhs in Karnataka.

“All young voters who are turning 18 years of age by April 1, will be able to vote in the Karnataka Assembly elections,” he said.

The CEC also laid down the security measures for the identified sensitive booths in the state.

“There are 58,282 polling stations in Karnataka of which 20,866 are urban. The average number of electors per polling station comes to 883. On all the sensitive booths which have been identified, we take four to five measures. Either there would be CAPF, web-casting, or a micro-observer. With the combination of all of these, we tend to put more vigour and vigil on the sensitive booths,” he informed.

“There would be 240 model polling stations which will be made eco-friendly and green booths. 100 booths would be managed purely by persons with disability,” Kumar added explaining the measures taken by the ECI for attracting the youth to vote.

Meanwhile, Karnataka, which has 224 seats in the Assembly currently has 119 MLAs of the ruling BJP, while Congress has 75 and its ally JD(S) has 28 seats.

With months to go for the Assembly elections, the political parties including the ruling BJP, Congress and ally JD(S) began the spate of allegations and counter-allegations, with the latter attempting to corner the government over the issue of corruption.

The BJP government, being led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is also putting in efforts to return to power and stressing the Kannadigas issue, reservation to the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities by scrapping a religion-based reservation for the Muslim community, a decision which the state government took recently.

The government, last year, had proposed that the companies that do not give first preference to Kannadigas will not be eligible for incentives. The government’s move came in the latter part of last year in a bid to promote Kannada. It was included in the Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Bill. (ANI)

Over 84% Polling in Nagaland, 76.66% In Meghalaya

By LokMarg 27th February 2023

Meghalaya recorded a voting percentage of over 76 per cent and Nagaland saw a voter turnout of over 84 per cent in the polling for assembly elections in the two northeastern states on Monday.

According to the latest data from Election Commission, Meghalaya recorded 76.66 per cent polling while it was 84.66 per cent in Nagaland.
Meghalaya saw a voter turnout of 63.91 per cent till 3 pm in 59 assembly constituencies for which polling was held. The polling started at 7 am and ended at 4 pm.

The voting percentage picked up momentum as the day progressed. It was 44.73 per cent till 1 pm, 26.70 per cent till 11 am and 12.06 per cent till 9 am.

Polling was held at 3,419 polling stations across 59 Assembly constituencies in the state.

Of the 60 Assembly constituencies in Meghalaya, 36 constituencies are in Khasi, Jaintia Hills region while 24 are in Garo Hills region.

Polling for the Sohiong Assembly constituency was postponed following the demise of the state’s former Home Minister and United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate HDR Lyngdoh.

Over 21 lakh voters were eligible to cast votes including 10.99 lakh are women and 10.68 lakh male voters.

In Nagaland, the voter turnout was 75.49 per cent till 3 pm. The electoral fate of 183 candidates has been sealed with the conclusion of the election for 59 seats.

The state saw brisk polling with voter 60.51 per cent voter turnout till 1 pm and 38.68 per cent till 11 am.

The BJP contested the polls in alliance with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), its partner in the 2018 Assembly polls as well.

A total of 13,17,632 voters were eligible to cast their vote in the state in 2,351 polling stations.

The counting of votes in Nagaland and Meghalaya along with that in Tripura, which went to the polls on February 16, will be taken up on March 2. (ANI)
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BJP To Fortify 10 Lakh Booths Ahead Of 2024 Elections

By LokMarg 26th February 2023

A high-level organizational meeting of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) national general secretary was chaired by BJP national president JP Nadda was held at BJP headquarters on Sunday to review the implementation of the public outreach programme to strengthen all the booths at the grassroots level as it gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

As per a senior BJP source, the main agenda and focus were on strengthening the organization at the grassroots level and strengthening the booth and reviewing the upcoming six state elections.

According to a senior BJP source, the party is going to strengthen 10,000,000 booths across the country. Along with this, President Droupadi Murmu’s pre-budget speech would be narrated in 2,00,000 Shakti Kendras in the second week of March, party sources added.

Discussions were held on how to strengthen the party in these states so that it comes in favour of the BJP. Talking about the Lok Sabha Pravas, the second round of the Lok Sabha Pravas will be over in the month of March.

There was a review on whether people are getting the benefit of the public welfare scheme of the central government or not. The party is also focusing on public meetings to connect with common people.

“BJP has been continuously doing many programs in Telangana and Karnataka. Apart from this, there are other states as well, they are doing many programs for direct contact with the public, not only this, all the fronts of BJP,” said a senior BJP source. (ANI)

Bow And Arrow Symbol To Be Retained By Shinde Faction: ECI

By LokMarg 17th February 2023

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced that the party name “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow” will be retained by the Eknath Shinde faction.

Notably, both factions of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde (present Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year.
The Commission observed that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic. It has been mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all. Such party structures fail to inspire confidence.

In a landmark decision with far-reaching implications on political parties and their conduct, ECI advised all political parties to reflect democratic ethos and principles of inner party democracy and regularly disclose on their respective websites aspects of their inner party functioning, such as organisational details, holding of elections, the copy of Constitution and list of office bearers.

“The constitution of political parties ought to provide for free, fair and transparent elections to the posts of office bearers and a further free and fair procedure for the resolution of internal disputes. These procedures ought to be difficult to amend and should be amendable only after ensuring larger support of the organisational members for the same,” the ECI said.

“The Constitution of SS amended in 2018 is not given to ECI. Amendments had undone the act of introducing democratic norms in the Party Constitution of 1999, brought by the Late Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the Commission,” the ECI added.

The ECI observed that the undemocratic norms of the original Constitution of Shiv Sena, which was not accepted by the Commission in 1999 have been brought back in a surreptitious manner further making the party akin to a fiefdom.

The Rashtriya Karyakarini is a body which is ‘elected’ by a largely ‘appointed’ Pratinidhi Sabha. The Commission conveyed to Shiv Sena in the year 1999 on the draft amendments when Bala Saheb was made leader of Sena for life: “To put in a nutshell, the party Constitution envisages the President nominating the Electoral College that is to elect him. Therefore, any reliance on the ‘”Test of Party Constitution”‘ for determining the present dispute case will be undemocratic and catalytic in spreading such practices across parties.

The ECI said that the 2018 Constitution of SS, by way of its plain reading on the vital axis of remedy/modality of dissent, stifles all options of the rival group(s) in its very formulation. It confers widespread powers of making various organisational appointments on a single person.

“The 40 MLAs, supporting the Shinde faction, garnered 36,57327 votes out of a total of 47,82440 votes i.e ~76 per cent of votes polled in favour of 55 winning MLAs in the GA to the LA 19. This contrasts with 11,25113 votes garnered by 15 MLAs whose support is claimed by the Uddhav Thakre faction i.e ~ 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of winning 55 MLAs,” it said.

Further, as against 90,49,789, total votes polled by Shiv Sena in the General election to the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra in 2019 (including the losing candidates), votes polled by 40 MLAs supporting the Shinde faction come to ~40 per cent whereas votes polled by 15 MLAs supporting the Uddhav Thakre faction come to ~12 per cent of total votes, the Commission said.

“The 13 MPs supporting the Shinde faction garnered 74,88,634 votes out of a total of 1,02,45143 votes i.e ~73 per cent of votes polled in favour of 18 MPs in the general election to the Lok Sabha, 2019. This contrasts with 27,56,509 votes garnered by 5 MPs supporting Uddhav Thakre faction (although claimed 6 and affidavits filed by only 4) i.e ~ 27 per cent of votes polled in favour of 18 MPs,” the Commission further stated.

Further, as against 1,25,89064, the total votes polled by Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha election, 2019 (including the losing candidates), votes polled by 13 MPs supporting the Shinde faction come to ~59 per cent whereas votes polled by 5 MPs (claimed 6 whereas affidavits of only 4) supporting the Uddhav Thakre faction comes to ~22 per cent, the Commission added.

Last month, both the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted their written statements in support of their claims of control over the party name and symbol to the Election Commission.

The ECI had frozen the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena and had allotted the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol was allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.

In November last year, Uddhav Thackeray had moved a writ plea in the Delhi High Court against the ECI decision to freeze Election Symbol of Bow and Arrow. However, the plea was dismissed by the court.

Notably, EC passed the interim order saying in Andheri East bypolls, neither of the two groups shall be permitted to use the symbol “Bow and Arrow”, reserved for “Shiv Sena”.

The Commission’s ruling had come amid the ongoing symbol war between the Uddhav Thackeray camp and rival Eknath Shinde camp. (ANI)

EC Develops Prototype To Enable Domestic Migrants Vote Remotely

By LokMarg 29th December 2022

To encourage domestic migrants to exercise their franchise, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday informed about a prototype Multi-Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM), which would enable migrant voters to vote from remote polling stations.

“Migration-based disenfranchisement is indeed not an option in the age of technological advancement. The voter turnout in General Elections 2019 was 67.4 % and the Election Commission of India is concerned about the issue of over 30 Crore electors not exercising their franchise and also differential voter turnout in various States/UTs,” the ECI said in a statement.
It said the inability to vote due to internal migration (domestic migrants) is one of the prominent reasons behind low voter turnout.

With the objective of finding a technological solution that is credible, accessible, and acceptable to all stakeholders, the Commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, along with election commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, explored the option of using a modified version of the time-tested model of M3 EVMs to enable voting at remote polling stations i.e. polling stations outside the home constituency, for domestic migrants, the statement further read.

The migrant voter wouldn’t be required to travel to his/her home district to exercise his/her franchise.

The Commission has also circulated a concept note amongst the political parties highlighting the challenges of defining domestic migrants, implementation of Model Code of Conduct, ensuring secrecy of voting, facility of polling agents for identification of voters, process and method of remote voting, and counting of votes, among other issues.

A Multi Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) is being piloted by the Commission for facilitating the participation of domestic migrants from their remote locations itself.

The modified form of EVM can handle up to 72 multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth. The initiative, if implemented, can lead to a social transformation for the migrants and connect with their roots, as many times they are reluctant to get themselves enrolled at their place of work for various reasons such as frequently changing residences, not enough social and emotional connect with the issues of an area of migration, unwillingness to get their name deleted in the electoral roll of their home/native constituencies as they have permanent residence/property, the ECI further informed.

The Commission has also invited all recognized eight national and 57 regional political parties on January 16, 2023, to demonstrate the functioning of the multi-constituency prototype Remote EVM. Members of the EC’s Technical Expert Committee will also be present during the demonstration.

The Commission has also solicited written views of recognized political parties by January 31, 2023, on various related issues including changes required in legislation, changes in administrative procedures, and voting method/RVM/technology, if any other, for the domestic migrants, the release further stated. (ANI)