EC briefs observers for Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra

The Election Commission (EC) today asked observers for Assembly elections in Haryana and Maharashtra to strictly follow rules and standard operating procedures.

Around 500 officers drawn from IAS, IPS as also from Indian Revenue Service and few other central services attended a briefing, the ECI said in a statement.

These officers are being deployed as General, Police and Expenditure Observers.

During the meeting, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora emphasised on the crucial role of observers for conducting elections in transparent, participative and voter-friendly manner, more so for persons with disabilities and senior citizens who need assistance.

"The observers should ensure strict compliance of the EC's rules and standard operating procedures... The officers need to be extremely careful to ensure that no mistakes are committed. The observers as EC-appointed nominees need to be vigilant, neutral and responsive in their approach to all stakeholders at the field level," Arora said.

Addressing the meeting, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa outlined the EC's procedures for the field-level functionaries.

"The EC expects and depends a lot on the observers as the ground level officers also depend on the expert advice and impartial perspective of the observers,'' he said.

He said the commission has developed Observers' App and other tech-tools such as CVigil to aid the officers, though it is expected that the observers would be alert and discharge their duties faithfully at all times.

During the half-a-day long briefing, the officers were given comprehensive inputs about various aspects of election management, electoral rolls, IT applications and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

"Using the Observers App, General, Police and Expenditure observers can submit their report securely to EC by uploading the relevant document from the mobile app. The observers will get all important notifications, alerts, and urgent messages on this App while they are on duty. It will also facilitate observers to get their deployment status, download the ID card and update their profile", the statement said.

The observers will be on deputation with the EC for the entire duration of the poll process till end of October.