People resent long wait for poll results

Tirupati: Telugu people are expressing their anger and anguish over Election Commission's general elections schedule which kept forced them to be in waiting for more than 40 days to know the results. In particular, the Assembly elections in AP were held in the first phase after which another six phases of polling have to be completed.

While the polling was completed in the two Telugu States on April 11, the counting of votes will take place only on May 23. At a time when Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has challenging the Election Commission's decisions and decided to take up the issue to its logical conclusion, the cross section of people's resentment over inordinate delay in announcing the results also assumed significance.

The majority opinion was that the EC should take into consideration several facts before fixing the schedule and not confine itself with the deployment of forces in various states. From the date of announcement of election schedule to the completion of the last phase of polling the election code will be in force and the elected governments both at the Centre and states cannot take any decisions.

Accordingly there will be no governance for almost two months which is a serious issue on which a lot of debate has to be taken place, opined a Professor who preferred to be anonymous. "The governance is being paralysed which is not good for the democracy. How can the EC tie the hands of governments in the name of Election code? It's important to follow code of conduct to control the governments but it is equally important to complete the whole election process in the minimum possible period, say for instance 30 days", he argued.

Former Assembly Speaker Dr A Eswar Reddy observed that such a long duration to conduct elections will have very serious repercussions and it should be brought down to a minimum period. The role of Election Commission which is otherwise an independent entity was under scrutiny for some time and it's decisions were definitely raising questions.

"Why so many EVMs had technical glitches? There was almost one week gap between one phase to another. To whom it will help? There are so many debatable issues", he averred. Bureaucracy will not act firmly in the absence of elected governments. For instance, an investor cannot wait that much time to get approvals and cannot rely on bureaucrats. Many such problems will arise which needs a serious thinking.

Six times MP and Congress candidate from Tirupati Parliamentary constituency Chinta Mohan said that electoral reforms must come in the country. Conducting elections months together will not do any good for country. They can be completed within a short duration but for whose sake EC has prolonged the process, he questioned.

He also opined that the reforms should bring in a system wherein those who purchase votes are to be barred for life time from contesting any elections. A postgraduate student said that it's meaningless to wait for more than a month for results after polling .The country is going hi-tech in all forms. But, taking two months to complete elections, which is ridiculous, he stated.

Particularly, the present Election commission has failed miserably in so many aspects and they could not even conduct proper polling this time and it is high time that a total revamp of the system should come for the good health of our democracy, opined another student. Condemning the long duration of election process, a teacher has suggested that by dividing the country into various zones, forces can be deployed from one place to another and the whole process should complete in 10 days from the first phase.

Meanwhile, the common people and politicos were of the view that the long gap from polling to counting leads to unnecessary stress. "When our elections were completed why should we wait for other states? Why don't our votes be counted", asked a street vendor and made it clear that they cannot bear such uncertainty.