EC may take two months to hold elections

NEW DELHI, NOV 23: The Election Commission will require a minimum 60 days to hold a snap poll, commission sources said today. The sources s...

NEW DELHI, NOV 23: The Election Commission will require a minimum 60 days to hold a snap poll, commission sources said today. The sources said that if Lok Sabha was dissolved in the next few days, the commission would decide on poll dates to ensure that the process was completed by March 15.

They explained that financial allocation under the present budget was valid only until March 31 and general elections would have to be completed by March 15 to enable a new government to assume office in time to pass a Vote on Account in Parliament to meet official expenditure for the next three months.

The commission, they said, had been holding meetings from time to time to review poll arrangements and was prepared to hold elections at short notice.Like in 1996, the sources said, polls would have to be spread over at least three to four days as the security forces would have to be given a minimum time to move from one part of the country to another.

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The commission, in the last three months, has been carrying out massive exercise of “summary” revision of electoral rolls across the country with the cut off date of January 1, 1998, to include names of people who have turned 18. The fresh electoral rolls will be published on January 5.However, in Assam, “intensive” revision of electoral rolls is on to weed out names of foreigners.

The sources said that a minimum of Rs 700 to Rs 800 crore would be the official expenditure incurrred for general elections. Around Rs 550 crore was spent in the Lok Sabha elections last year.

Giving examples of various requirements for polls, they said a minimum of 2,000 tonnes of paper would be required for printing ballot papers and poll related material. Keeping in view such requirements, a minimum of 75 days would be needed by the commission to prepare for elections, they added.Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill said the commission would put its poll machinery into top gear if called upon to hold general elections.

“We have to look into a range of requirements and decide on a suitable time if asked to hold polls,” Gill said when asked about the minimum time that the commission would require for preparing itself for a mid-term poll.