The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Supreme Court directed early elections’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Supreme Court directed early elections’

Special Correspondent

Only seven days available for campaigning
Activities of parties, candidates to be monitored

Bangalore: State Election Commissioner M.R. Hegde, who on Tuesday announced elections to urban local bodies, said he had no option but to complete the elections before the end of the month as ordered by the Supreme Court. He appealed to political parties and the electorate to cooperate with the State Election Commission in conducting the elections.

Explaining reasons for the hurried election schedule to presspersons here, Mr. Hegde said that the Supreme Court had asked the commission whether it was ready to complete the elections before the end of September and the commission said it was. That was why only seven days had been allowed for campaigning.

He said that the Supreme Court had held in the Kishan Singh Tomar case that State Election Commissioners enjoyed the same powers as the Chief Election Commissioner. The court had also said in its judgment that it was the duty of State governments and other agencies, which were expected to assist the commission in the conduct of elections, to extend all cooperation.

Mr. Hegde said video cameras would be used to monitor the activities of political parties and candidates during electioneering.

Ballot papers would be printed in Kannada, and also in Urdu and Marathi in areas where the linguistic minorities accounted for more than 15 per cent of the electorate.

He said 10,163 presiding officers and 50,815 polling officers would be involved in conducting the elections.

Voters can get their names included in the electoral list till the last date fixed for filing of nomination papers (September 17).

The nomination papers will be scrutinised on September 18. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is September 20. The votes will be counted on September 30. The Deputy Commissioners concerned will notify the elections on September 10.

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