EC issues advisory to Delhi govt on transfer, posting of poll-related officers

As the Election Commission prepares to hold assembly polls in Delhi in the coming months, it has issued an advisory to the state chief secretary and the chief electoral officer to transfer officials connected directly with elections posted in their home districts and those who have spent three years in a district in the last four years.

In an advisory issued on Thursday, the poll panel said that no district election officer, returning officer or assistant returning officer, police inspector or sub-inspector or above is posted back or allowed to continue in the assembly seat or district where he was posted during assembly elections or bypolls between February 1, 2016 and January 31, 2018.

"However, the officers posted on recommendation by the Commission during this period are exempted from the condition," the advisory said.

It is usual for the poll panel to issue such directions ahead of Lok Sabha or assembly polls to ensure that officials do not interfere in the election process in any way and the exercise remains free and fair.

The term of the 70-member Delhi assembly ends on February 22, 2020.

The advisory also cautioned that officials against whom the Commission had recommended disciplinary action in past and "which is pending or which has resulted in a penalty or the officers who have been charged for any lapse in any election-related work in the past, may not be assigned any election related duty."