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Nirmala George
NEW DELHI, MAY 4: The suspense is over: the Election Commission today announced that general elections to the 13th Lok Sabha will be held towards the end of September and completed by early October. The announcement came a day after the EC held ``deep deliberations'' with all political parties, where a majority expressed their preference for polls in September.
Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill said that this was ``the best possible time for the elections considering all factors.''
As anticipated, the decision was welcomed by Opposition parties who said they were happy the revision of electoral rolls would be completed bringing 1.5 crore new voters.
The BJP took the decision in its stride although it had been pushing for early polls in June citing bad weather, floods and communication disruption if the elections were held later. Senior party leaders welcomed the EC's decision saying it would give them enough time to go to the people.
Gill said that the poll schedule--the dates for polling andcounting--would be announced once the logistics of conducting the mammoth exercise had been sorted out.
``The day we make the announcement about the dates, the code (of conduct) will be applied effectively and fully,'' Gill said. He reiterated his appeal to the Central and state governments to exercise utmost restraint and to desist from taking any decision which could be unfair.
Until then, all complaints would have to be directed to the President. Already some political parties have petitioned the President with complaints about largescale transfer of officials in different states.
No decision has been taken on another issue, that of holding simultaneous elections in nine states where Assembly polls are due either at the end of the year or early next year, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra and Bihar.
The exception is Goa, currently under President's rule, which expires in August. A decision on holding separate polls in Goa would be taken shortly.
While some politicalparties were making heavy weather of the monsoons, the summer heat and subsequent floods, and others had raised the issue of the ongoing revision of electoral rolls, the EC felt not enough weight had been given to the logistics of holding the elections.
An electorate of over 600 million voters, involving 50 lakh government staff manning eight lakh polling stations, five lakh security personnel, required many months of planning. This aspect of the polls had tended to get overlooked, the CEC said.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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