In a run up to the Parliamentary Elections, Chief Election Officer, Punjab Dr. S Karna Raju chaired a meeting with the representatives of all the political parties in the Committee Room of the office of CEO. The meeting was also attended by the Additional CEOs Kavita Singh and Siban C.The politicians were informed about various aspects of election process including the Model Code of Conduct (MCoC), EVM/VVPAT awareness, Paid News/ Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) and the Nomination Process. Besides, he also brought home other matters related to elections like the Election Expenditure Monitoring and the tours of the Ministers.CEO said that MCoC has come into force with the announcement of election schedule and should be adhered to in the letter and spirit. It was informed that each candidate is permitted to make an expenditure upto Rs. 70 lac subject to submission of a complete record of all the transactions to the concerned Returning Officer. He added that payments for all the transactions above Rs.10,000 are to be made by cheques.
Detailing on monitoring of paid news and advertisements, Dr. Raju said that Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMCs) have been constituted at State and district level . Certification is to be sought from the local MCMC before floating any publicity content . The Monitoring Committees will keep a vigil on all the publicity activities of candidates/ political parties. Advertisements on Radio, Print, Electronic and social media along with other methods of outdoor publicity and paid news would be under their scrutiny.Dr. Raju informed the political parties regarding form 26 and form A&B in detail. He said that the affidavit in form 26 and form A&B have to be filed latest by 3:00 P.M. on the last date of filing nominations. None of the columns should be left blank in the affidavit in form 26, and affidavit complete in all respects, should be submitted latest by the time fixed for commencement of scrutiny of nominations. Failure to submit revised affidavit complete in all respects, even after reminder by RO will be a ground for rejection of the nomination paper. It is also mandatory for the candidates to submit an attested copy of voter list bearing his name as the voter, at the time of filing the nomination, said he.During the meeting, the security features and availability of EVMs was explained and a live demo of EVM/VVPAT machines was given to dispel the doubts of the concerned.Later, discussions were held and queries of politicians were responded to by CEO. He urged them to go through the ECI guidelines carefully for the conduct of free and fair elections.