EC sees red as parties set up illegal helpdesks outside booths and hand out voters' slips bearing names of candidates
EC sees red as parties set up illegal helpdesks outside booths and hand out voters' slips bearing names of candidates
The deadline for campaigning may have ended at 5 pm on Tuesday, but most political parties were unaffected.
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In an attempt to what we can call last-minute campaigning, party workers set up 'helpdesks' outside poll booths yesterday.
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POLL PRANK: Political parties distributed slips bearing names of candidates at a helpdesk set up outside poll booths yesterday |
Voters flocking to these desks for enquiry (to check if their names appeared on the electoral rolls) were handed over slips bearing names of political parties and their candidates.
However, this did not go down well with Debashish Chakrabarty, the state's Chief Electoral Officer.
"It is wrong of political parties to promote their candidates in this manner," he said.
"People distributing the voter slips don't come under our surveillance. However, steps could be taken by zonal officers if people complain," added Chakrabarty.
Action taken Such illegal helpdesks were spotted outside poll booths across the city. At Oshiwara, after the zonal station officer manning the polling centre took notice of these slips, voters were stopped outside the booth. "We asked voters to tear parts of the slip that carried the names of the candidates. It was like surrogate advertising," said an official from the Election Commission.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
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Soon after, an inspector and a constable asked political parties to shut shop and stop distribution of slips bearing names of candidates.
When voters learned that the helpdesks were illegal they were upset. "How do we know that the helpdesks were not set up by the EC and that the slips were illegal? The slips were being distributed outside the polling booth," complained a voter from the North West Constituency.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
