The Hindu : 'De-recognition of parties EC's sole preserve'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 13, 2002

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'De-recognition of parties EC's sole preserve'

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI July 12. The Election Commission, while declining to comment on the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's statement in Chennai that she would seek a ban on the MDMK party, said "recognition or de-recognition of political parties is the sole preserve of the Commission.''

Talking to presspersons, the Deputy Election Commissioner, Sayan Chatterjee, said: "We have not heard anything about the report.

The Commission registers political parties under Section 29 (a) of the Representation of the People Act. Let the event occur, it is hypothetical now,'' he added when asked whether the State had the power to ban a registered political party.

Asked whether the Commission would permit the MDMK MP, Vaiko, to vote in the Presidential election on July 15, the other Deputy Election Commissioner, A.N. Jha, said: "He can vote in Chennai after getting an order of parole from the competent court and we have no objection.''

Earlier the two Deputy Commissioners explained the steps being taken by the commission to ensure free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Commission would hand-pick 20 senior civil servants with known capabilities and proven track record and dynamism for being deputed as observers from the coming week.

They said around 6,500 polling stations were to be located and electronic voting machines would be used in all the booths. They said that during the 1996 elections polling booths could not be located in certain areas due to threat perceptions.

But for the ensuing elections, polling booths would be located as per the 1988 elections.

Regarding Kashmiri Pandits who had migrated from the Kashmir valley and residing in camps, the Commission would locate booths in their camps in Delhi and Jammu, from where they could vote.

The electoral rolls for all the 87 Assembly constituencies had been computerised in Urdu and would be distributed free of cost to all the recognised and some unrecognised political parties in the State.

The Commission had asked the State Government to provide security cover to one leader of each recognised national and State party.

This would benefit the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the CPI and the CPI (M), the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, they added.

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