Kohima Bureau
Kohima, Jan. 30 (EMN): A day after 11 political parties signed a joint declaration not to issue party tickets for the forthcoming state assembly elections, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nagaland, Abhijit Sinha on Jan. 30 announced that the election department will go ahead with the due process.
Addressing a press conference in his office in Kohima on Tue., he said the department was aware of the stand of the Naga tribal bodies and civil society organisations and their meeting with the political parties. However, he asserted, that it would in no way change the election schedule or hamper the process.
“We are going ahead with the process and tomorrow we are publishing the notification. Today also we had a meeting with the political parties and all parties attended, so for us, we are following the election schedule which has been announced and we continue appealing to everyone that nothing should be done to vitiate this,” the CEO informed.
Sinha said the election department has to follow the mandate of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Pointing out that the term of the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) is coming to an end on Mar. 13, he said there definitely has to be an assembly election and a new assembly should be in place by then. On the threat of Nagaland bandh on Feb.1, the possibility of it running through the nomination period, Sinha replied: “When the time comes we will see what further steps are to be taken.”
He said that the department will “see” what needs to be done in the event of no candidates filing nominations. “Right now we are not expecting any unnecessary scenario like that, but if no nominations are filed then we will convey what should be done,” Sinha stated, adding, “By and by, we will keep looking at the situation and analyse”.
“The department has to follow the ECI’s mandate. So we are not in a position or in the right platform to make any further comments,” he added. In case any candidate is forcefully disallowed to file nomination, he/she should approach the respective District Election Officer (DEO) or the Returning Officer (RO) or Superintendent of Police (SPs), it was informed.
Filing of nominations to commence on Jan. 31
Affirming that the state machinery is geared up for the conduct of the assembly polls, Sinha has informed that the formal election process will begin on Jan. 31 by the issuance of the election notification. Once the notification is issued, he said, the nomination period will start on the same day and intending candidates can avail nomination papers and file from all the RO’s offices across the state from Jan. 31 till Feb. 7. Nomination can be received by the ROs from 11 am till 3 pm every day, he said.
Fifty-five election observers have been deployed for the elections, it was learnt. Twenty-two expenditure observers are expected to arrive the state by Jan. 31 while another 22 general observers and 11 police observers will reach by Feb. 7.
On security arrangements, he said about 280 companies of central armed police forces (CAPF) will be deployed to the state to supplement the state forces. Forty-five CAPF companies are expected to be in the state by Wed., he said, while the remaining will arrive after the completion of Tripura polls. Besides this, three flying squads for each constituencies have already been activated and static check posts are operational, the CEO informed. He added that arrangements have been made for real time webcasting in about 555 polling stations out of 2194 stations across the state. Others will be covered with fixed camera videography.
More than 9500 vehicles are required for the conduct of election duty and there is a shortage in the state’s ‘availability’, therefore the state is trying to requisition 4000 vehicles from neighbouring Assam. “Right now, the shortage is very much there (in Nagaland),” he said, and added that one of the state’s additional CEOs had gone to meet with the Transport Commissioner of Assam to get the adequate number of vehicles.
He explained that such a high number of vehicles were needed as all the CAPF companies require six vehicles each, then some would be designated for the flying squads while others would be needed for the polling parties. The total requirement was also due to the polling stations being scattered across the state due to the geographical terrain.
“We are all prepared for the polls and we solicit everyone’s cooperation and good sense in ensuring that the election gets conducted in a very clean, fair and peaceful manner,” CEO stated.
