Abide by model code of conduct, CEO tells political parties

Amaravati: Chief Electoral Officer Gopalakrishna Dwivedi ,addressing the representatives of the political parties here on Monday, said that the model code of conduct is in force after the election notification was released and all the political parties should follow the model code of conduct (MCC).

He said that application for enrolment as voters would be accepted till March 15 by submitting Form-6. He appealed to the political parties to bring awareness among people regarding the important of enrolment. He ruled out the deletion of the name of any eligible voter from the list.

The CEO said that if they receive any Form-7 applications after March 10, the decision would be taken only after the elections. However, the applications received before March 10 would be verified thoroughly before deleting the votes.

The CEO informed the political parties that they had received 7.5 lakh Form-7 applications throughout the state and after verification 5.5 lakh applications were rejected with regard to the deceased persons and duplicate votes. The fresh supplementary copy of the voters list would be made available by March 26.

The CEO appealed to the representatives of political parties to abide by the model code of conduct and the election expenditure would be monitored continuously.

The CEO appealed to the people to lodge complaints with the officials through C-Vigil App in case they come across any violation of model code. "Stern action would be taken in case of violation of model code," he warned.

The expenditure incurred by the candidates by way of propaganda material would be included in their accounts, he said adding that the district-level MCC committees would take the decision of poll expenditure. Once the candidate files the nomination, the expenditure has to be shown in his account, he said.

The favourable articles published in the social media, Twitter, Facebook TV Channels, Web Editions and the print media would be taken into consideration in assessing the expenditure, the CEO said.

CCTVs would be installed at the critical areas and voting pattern would be supervised through webcasting. CEO appeals to people

The CEO appealed to people to check their votes and apply afresh if they did not find them before March 15. "They could verify through Voter Helpline App or by calling toll free number 1950. They could apply for voter online too," he said. Form-6 could be personally given to the booth-level officer or tahsildar concerned to avail the facility of voting.

Additional CEO Vivek Yadav, Joint CEO D. Markandeyulu, Malladi Vishnu and Ch Srinivasa Reddy (both YCP), Y Prabhakar and Y Venkateswara Rao (CPM), Satyamurthy (BJP) and G Obulesu attended the meeting.