Decision will be taken on plea to hold single phase polls in Tamil Nadu: CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar hailed Tamil Nadu’s electoral roll revision as a national model and said the state’s upcoming Assembly polls could surpass Bihar in efficiency, with a decision on single-phase voting pending

Chennai: Terming the recently concluded SIR of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu as a model for the country and a great success, CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Friday said parties in the state have suggested holding Assembly polls in a single phase and a decision on it would be taken after considering all the factors.

The Election Commission’s decision over ‘phases for polls’ will be known once the election schedule is announced, he said, adding the Assembly election in Tamil Nadu will set a record in bettering the polls in Bihar.

---

Addressing a press conference here, the Chief Election Commissioner said: “The take away from Bihar is that it has been the most flawless elections held in the recent decades and I have been assured by all the collectors, SPs and the entire electoral machinery, including enforcement agencies that Tamil Nadu is going to set records and will be much better than Bihar.”

On the recently concluded SIR of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, he lauded it as a model for country and a great success and it ensured cleaner rolls. It displayed the professionalism of the election commission officials in ensuring cleaner rolls, he said in reply to certain political parties’ criticism that the exercise resulted in mass deletion of voters’ names.

He said though 100 per cent voting is not mandatory as per law, Tamil Nadu’s voting has been “highly encouraging and politically conscious.”

The top poll official assured amenities in 75,000 polling stations across the state. On the vote counting exercise, he said that mandatory VVPAT counting shall take place and even after counting is over, any candidate, on fee payment, can match EVM with VVPAT during next 7 days. Amongst the new initiatives, one major was that postal ballots will be counted 2 rounds before the EVM rounds.

The CEC praised Tamil Nadu’s “glorious past in democracy” and he said the state’s ancient ‘Kudavolai’ system of polls was proudly mentioned by them in a conference.