Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 15 2009:
Even as stringent security measures have been put in place at all the 12 centres where counting of votes for the two Parliamentary Constituencies would be held starting from 8 am tomorrow, the Election Commission of India has instructed that not more than four persons should accompany the successful candidate at the time of collecting the certificate from the RO.
Talking to mediapersons at the mini conference hall of Old Secretariat here today in connection with counting of the votes tomorrow, Chief Election Officer Shambhu Singh informed that DGP had also been entrusted for taking up necessary security measures to ensure no untoward incident occur during the course of procession of the successful candidates.
An instruction received from the side of the Election Commission today said that the DGP and other sub-ordinate officers should be held responsible for any unwanted incidents during the procession of the successful candidates, the CEO said.
The instruction of the Election Commission which had been communicated to all concerned also mentioned that the area after the fist cordon leading to the counting centre shall be pedestrian only zone, no vehicles including that of DEO and SP will go into this zone and arrangements for frisking by both male and lady police personnel will be made at the begining of the pedestrian only zone.
As for media coverage of the event, the Election Commission pointed out that a senior officer who should be appointed as the in-charge of the media centre will escort the media personnel into the counting halls in small batches.
Though media personnel will be allowed to use their digital or video cameras into the counting hall, use of cell phones should be only from the media centre.
While informing that the results of the vote count can also be known from the internet, the CEO appealed for maintaining peace and order inside the counting halls.
In case of EVM malfunctioning during vote count, the CEO explained that the print outs of the details could be taken out with the help of printers and the same could be utilised for the purpose.
For such eventualities, seven engineers have been posted at different places, the CEO informed.
Maintaining that 'they have no friend or foe', the CEO lastly appealed to all concerned to think otherwise in case of any error during the vote count.