Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, speaking to reportershere, said the ECI is duty-bound to carry out the mandate given to it by theConstitution.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is keeping a tab ondevelopments in India following the Pulwama militant attack and thegovernment’s response to it in form of air strikes, a top poll panel officialsaid Tuesday.
Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, speaking to reportershere, said the ECI is duty-bound to carry out the mandate given to it by theConstitution.
Lavasa was replying to a query on whether the ECI’s schedulefor general elections would be affected after the February 14 Pulwama bombingand subsequent government response to it.
The poll officials held a press conference here afterreviewing preparedness in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha elections.
The press meet was held hours after the Indian Air Forcesaid it conducted air strikes against militant camps in Pakistan.
“The Election Commission does keep a watch on all thedevelopments which take place. And we are duty-bound to carry out our mandatewhich has been given by the Constitution,” Lavasa said.
He said Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) would beused at all the polling booths along with EVMs machines in the state.
VVPT is an independent printer system attached with EVMsthat allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended.
Asked if the ECI is seriously mulling imposing a ban onprint media on taking advertisements on election day, Lavasa said the issue ofapplying a ‘silence period’ of 48 hours ahead of voting is being deliberatedfor some time now.
“Even in the conference of political parties held last year,this issue had come up. The ECI, after due consultation and examination, hadmade recommendations to the government for making an amendment in theRepresentation of the People Act to cover print media in the 48 hours silenceperiod,” Lavasa said.
Representatives of political parties have apprised the pollpanel about duplication in electoral-roll and sought a scrutiny to ensure apurified E-roll, he said.