Ec Reduces Campaign Time To 14 Days

The Election Commission has reduced the campaign period for the coming Lok Sabha polls from 20 to 14 days.

Disclosing this at a press conference here, the chief electoral officer, Tamil Nadu, K A Mathew, said that in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, the commission had given 20 days for electioneering after the withdrawal of nominations.He said the Election Commission would appoint three observers for each of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state, all of whom would be from outside Tamil Nadu. One of them would monitor the expenses of each candidate.

He said Puthia Tamizhagam, a new political party floated by Dalit leader, K Krishnasamy, would be treated as a registered party. Candidates of all the 53 registered parties in the state, including the MDMK and PMK, would be given preference in the allotment of symbols.

 

The Election Commission has convened a conference of chief electoral officers at New Delhi on January 7.

He would convene an all-party meeting here after the meeting, the CEO said.

Elections in the state would cost the exchequer Rs 35 crore, he added.

Mathew said the state required 500 tonnes of paper to print ballot papers and orders had been placed with the Tamil Nadu Newsprints Limited to meet the requirement. Orders had also been placed for the supply of indelible ink, he said.

The ballot papers would be printed at Chennai, Salem, Virudhachalam, Pudukkottai, Tiruchirappalli and Madurai.

The names of candidates of recognised national and state parties would be in the top followed by those belonging to registered parties. There were seven national parties and two state parties in the state which were recognised by the Election Commission, the CEO said.

Polling was expected to be held in two phases even though the state administration was prepared for a single day polling. More than three lakh government employees would be involved in the election work and over one lakh policemen would provide protection to polling booths, he said.