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Bid to sensitise voters about candidates

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI SEPT. 20. In a bid to take the fight for better governance a step further, non-government organisations and concerned citizens have come together to form a Delhi Election Watch for the upcoming Assembly elections. The Delhi Election Watch aims to sensitise voters about the quality of their candidates and use the informed power of civil society to put pressure for cleaner governance.

Speaking at a workshop held by the Delhi Election Watch in the Capital today, the national co-ordinator of Lok Satta, Jayaprakash Narayan, said: "The Election Watch is a movement which has been previously used in Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal as well as the civic elections in Mumbai. The two biggest enemies that we have to battle are cynicism and despair. It is important for voters to realise that they do have the power to change the system.''

Listing out the action plan of the Delhi Election Watch, Programme Officer, Constitutionalism Programme, Common Human Rights Initiative, Bibhu Mohapatra, said: "The Election Watch will get voters to know their candidates. The recent Supreme Court judgement makes it mandatory for candidates to declare their assets as well as if they have a criminal record. But we want to ensure that we start weeding out the candidates with a criminal past even before the nominations have been filed.

We will approach all political parties and ask them not to put up candidates with a criminal record. If they don't pay attention we will expose their intentions to the voter. After nominations are filed we will collect all the information we have on the candidates and put it in a digestible format to circulate among the voters.''

Besides, getting voters to know their candidates better, the Delhi Election Watch also aims to create opportunities for voters to interact with their candidates. "We want to arrange face-to-face meetings with both the voters and the candidates, so that the voters can question the candidates,'' he said. A tool which had been widely used by the Lok Satta in their Election Watch, organisers aim to use this experience in these Assembly elections too.

"These are debates of about 90 minutes each. The expenses for debates on common platforms will be borne by the Delhi Election Watch. The Election Watch wants to be able to organise such debates in every constituency in the Capital,'' stated Mr. Narayan.

Apart from getting voters familiar with their candidates, the Delhi Election Watch also intends to encourage people to cast their ballot. "We have found that 18 to 20 per cent of people in posh localities in the Capital do not get out of their houses to cast their vote. However, in less affluent areas polling is about 50 per cent. We hope to increase the polling in the posh areas to about 30 per cent, this will certainly make a difference in the outcome,'' said Mr. Narayan.

The Delhi Election Watch has also launched a helpline to answer any query voters could have: 26535768.

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