The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : "Election Watch" to scrutinise affidavits

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 08, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

"Election Watch" to scrutinise affidavits

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Election Watch, which will make affidavits of candidates public and monitor their election expenditure, was formed at the Bala Vidya Mandir School here on Tuesday. The Election Watch would consist of eminent individuals and members of organisations, which include the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the All-India Democratic Women's Association, CRY, Catalyst and the Consumer Action Group.

Affidavits filed by candidates, following a Supreme Court judgement, should have details of past criminal convictions, current cases in which charges have been framed, all assets and liabilities of the candidate, their spouse and dependents.

The Watch hopes to collate the information of affidavits for the legislative Assembly elections from across the State and present them before the public through the media.

Trilochan Sastry of the Association for Democratic Reforms shared the experience of the organisation in conducting such an exercise in Gujarat during the Lok Sabha elections.

He said that following their actions; major national parties had started checking for embarrassing disclosures on affidavits.

He reminded the group that three election observers were assigned for every constituency to monitor election expenditure. Candidates have to file information every three days on election expenditure. This information could also be collected and violations reported, he suggested.

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