Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy today hinted at taking action against all those separatist parties in J-K who try to hamper the electoral exercise.‘‘We will have to intervene when there is intimidation of voters or an organised pattern to prevent voters from casting ballot. The Commission will spare no effort to bring about a conducive atmosphere,’’ said Krishnamurthy who is touring the state with Election Commissioners B.B. Tandon and N. Gopalaswami.Except for the Hurriyat Conference (Abbas), all other major separatist parties as also militant outfits have asked people to stay away from the poll process maintaining that elections are no solution to the Kashmir dispute and the Centre is misleading the World by conducting fraudulent polls.Krishnamurthy said the EC would appeal to voters not to get influenced by the boycott call. ‘‘We will give them sufficient security. The district administration will do everything to protect them,’’ he said.The CEC said they have given clear instructions to the Army, the para-military forces and police to refrain from coercing people to vote. He said he had discussed with the Army and other forces the arrangements made in terms of security domination as also deployment in areas which have a record of poll disturbance.Krishnamurthy said he had received a number of complaints from political parties about misuse of official machinery and he has sent a strong message to officialdom to stick to adhere to the model code of conduct.The Commission also said it had made mandatory for all candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls to file an affidavit declaring their wealth and criminal antecedents. ‘‘The Election Commission has made it mandatory for all candidates to file an affidavit alongwith their nomination papers. The affidavit should include information on any criminal cases pending against him,’’ Election Commissioner B.B. Tandon said. The documents would be displayed at the offices of all returning officers and assistant returning officers and given to media, he said.
