Tuesday, Jun 04, 2002
Tuesday, Jun 04, 2002 |
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By Our Legal Correspondent
They marched towards the Election Commission, where a delegation of MPs presented a memorandum to the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh and the Election Commissioner, T.S. Krishnamurthy seeking re-poll in Saidapet to safeguard the principles of democracy. According to the DMK MP, C. Kuppusami, the Commission had assured the delegation that a decision in this regard would be taken after receipt of reports from the two election observers who had been deputed to Chennai to hold an enquiry regarding the various allegations. The memorandum said that the re-poll should be conducted with strict supervision of all the polling booths and full video coverage of the entire polling process. Polling should be conducted only after properly verifying the voters. It further said there was gross violation of election codes and that blatant electoral offences were committed in Saidapet constituency. Many State Ministers were seen campaigning in support of the AIADMK candidate even on the date of polling, using the official machinery and making promises regarding many new schemes in the constituency. The ruling AIADMK functionaries were in possession of thousands of blank community certificates signed by the Tahsildar and were freely using them as identification to cast bogus votes. A community certificate issued to a Muslim voter by name Khader Ismail, showed his community as Hindu Vellala, the memorandum said. It was alleged that thousands of bogus ration cards were printed and given to bogus voters to cast votes and in some cases same photographs were found in more than one ration card showing the same person as the head of the family. The presiding officers yielded to the pressure of the AIADMK men and freely allowed bogus voters to cast votes. The memorandum said the DMK candidate and his chief agent were brutally attacked and the AIADMK functionaries unleashed violence throughout the constituency to scare genuine voters from going to the polling booths. It said such booth capturing incidents were never witnessed in the political history of Tamil Nadu and all the political parties which had fielded their candidates in Saidapet had condemned the booth capturing by AIADMK men. The signatories urged the Commission to intervene immediately by ordering re-poll in Saidapet and ensure a free and fair election.
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