Kohima: A total of 184 candidates have made it to the final list for the ensuing assembly elections to the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly scheduled to be held on February 27.
V Shashank Shekhar, Chief Election Officer of Nagaland, said out of 225 nominations filed, 25 were rejected and 16 had withdrawn their nominations till February 10, which was also the last date for withdrawal.
Out of the 184 valid nominations, Shekhar said BJP candidate from 31 Akuluto AC, Kazheto Kinimi, won uncontested and, therefore, the remaining 183 will now face the polls.
There are four female candidates from constituencies namely 3 Dimapur, 6 Tening, 8 Western Angami and 32 Atoizu.
The constituencies with the highest number of six candidates each are Tening in Peren district, Sanis in Wokha district and Tehok in Mon district, the CEO said.
A total of 11 political parties including BJP 20, CPI 1, INC 23, NCP 12, NPP 12, NDPP 40, NPF 22, RPP 1, JDU 7, LJP 15, RPI 9, RJD 3 and 19 independent candidates will be in the poll race.
The CEO said a lot of efforts had been made by enforcement agencies both at the centre and state to control any inducement or wrongdoings to influence the voters.
He said, “From the day of announcement of election, an accumulative seizures of Rs 35.6 crore has been made so far, including cash amounting to Rs 2.7 crore, IMFL worth Rs 3.7 crore, drugs & narcotics worth Rs 25.7 crore and other items worth Rs 3.7 crore.”
The electoral data is frozen on the last date of filing of nominations.
Shekhar said the electoral rolls were formally frozen on February 7 and a total of 13,16,064 electorates would be casting their votes where 7,982 are service voters.
He said that once the final candidate list is ready, the campaigning will become more intense. “The Chief Electoral Commissioner (CEO) is taking all the necessary steps required for the forthcoming elections and have made all the logistical arrangements at the state level,” he added.
He said the CEO was also closely monitoring and, for the first time, three special observers, including special general observer, special expenditure observer, special police observer from IAS and IPS and other allied services, had been deputed to oversee on behalf of the commissioner.
Answering to a query on advertisements on print and social outlets, Shekhar said there are media certification and monitoring committee at all the district and state level.
“According to the commissioner’s norms and the Supreme Court directives any advertisement in the electronic media, which includes WhatsApp or SMS, have to be pre-certified by a designated committee and, in Nagaland, the committee is headed by an additional CEO and assisted by other members,” he added.
He said any form of advertisement in the electronic media had to be pre-certified.
For print media, the certification is required only for the last two days i.e. the polling day and one day prior to that and other than that pre-certification from the committee is not needed, he said.
He informed that whenever any poster is made, the printer’s name and address had to be printed on the posters so that it could be included in the candidate’s expenditure.
He said the DEOs had been authorised to implement the directions of the commission in this regard and so as soon as the election is announced the model code of conduct comes into effect.
Also any display of posters is not allowed in public spaces, which include government buildings, government areas, government offices while on private spaces it was allowed only with the written consent of the owner(s).
However, if there are designated areas such as municipalities only printed banners or flags can be displayed on payment basis but for audio and display of any visual will require pre certification.
Therefore, as soon as the election is announced, the commission closely monitors within the first 24 hours anything that are already there in public or private spaces, and anything of political nature is reported to the district offices.
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Besides, private places require written consent and advertisement in designated areas are allowed if it was not violating any model code of conduct.
Shekhar said even in the other states if any violation comes to the notice of the office then action are taken through the district machineries.
Answering to a query on candidates with criminal records, Shashank said it could be viewed from googleaffidavits.eci and one could view the affidavits filed by the candidates including their assets and liabilities and criminal antecedents.
And regarding those affidavits that were missing, he said that if any such cases comes to their notice then they would immediately get it updated.
Since their were 60 ACs and there might be connectivity issues, the CEO assured that they would check and look into the matter.
On poll related violence, Shashank said the first case was reported at Khar village, however, police have taken action and arrests were made and FIRs were lodged.
On February 6, another incident happened where two people were injured, he added.
He said, “The law takes its own course of action whenever any criminal activities take place. FIR are registered and police investigates the case; the accused are chargesheeted and the court hears the case and pronounces it verdict.”
He disclosed that enforcement agencies had taken the preliminary reports on the incident, which took place in the early morning of February 10 at Wokha. Although no arrests have been made but investigation is underway, he said. He added that police had also deputed an officer specially for this purpose and to oversee the elections.
He said his office was also keeping a close watch in all the districts.
He said, “75 CAPF companies were deployed in advance out of 305, while the remaining would be arriving on February 17 after polling day is over in Tripura.”
Shashank said his office is taking all the precautionary measures to maintain the law and order situation in the state. “I am hopeful of getting cooperation from all stakeholders to ensure a peaceful, free and fair elections.”
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In regard to critical and vulnerable polling stations, he said those are mostly looked after by the DCs and SPs at the district levels and are subsequently compiled and monitored at the state level.
“While identifying a polling station as critical, there are various factors that are taken into account. When more than 74 percent of votes are given to one candidate from a polling station, then that is automatically regarded as a critical polling booth,” he said.
Other factors include history of violence in the past or any kind of political tension or any other issue. These are norms laid down by the commission and are identified as critical.
As for vulnerability of a polling station, he said it is based on the assessment made by the office in regard to intimidation to voters or law and order issues.
In regard to seizure of cash, the CEO said, “If it is more than Rs 10 lakh then it is handled by the Income Tax Department like the recent case where Rs 1 crore was seized at the border with Manipur, which was handed over to the IT department.”
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