Postponement of polls costs EC, candidates dear

The postponement of the election to the Karnataka Legislative Council from the Karnataka South Graduates’ Constituency by a week has resulted in discarding of the ballot papers printed earlier for the election scheduled to be held tomorrow.

It has also come in as a disappointment for the contesting candidates who were set to stake claim in the election to the State Upper House tomorrow as they have to woo and wait a week more now. Apart from upsetting their plans, it has resulted in additional expenditure for them too.

Acting on a direction by the High Court, the Election Commission (EC) has put off the election from June 21 to June 30.

In its order on June 17, the High Court directed the Returning Officer to accept the nomination paper of an Independent candidate, Jayakumar Bharani, which had been rejected on the grounds of discrepancy. Acting swiftly on the High Court direction, the Election Commission of India issued a notification on June 18 postponing the election, which has been notified by the Returning Officer here.

Consequent to the High Court direction, the electoral authorities have to reprint the ballot papers for including the name of the independent candidate as the 26th candidate in fray and discard those papers printed earlier with names of only 25 contesting candidates. This has resulted in additional financial burden for both the EC and candidates.

The nomination papers of Bharani had been rejected during the scrutiny on June 5 on the ground that he had not produced any evidence to show that the 10th proposer of his name was a voter of the constituency and also because he had not mentioned the part number and serial number of roll of the constituency. Challenging this, Bharani had filed a writ petition in the High Court which has upheld his plea.

Apart from rescheduling the polling date, discarding of the old ballot papers and printing of fresh ones has resulted in additional financial burden. There is a feeling that if the authorities had looked into the electoral rules carefully such a situation could have been avoided.