The Hindu : Governor inaugurates poll panel website

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 20, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Governor inaugurates poll panel website

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE Feb. 19. The Governor, T.N. Chaturvedi, inaugurated the website of the State Election Commission (SEC) here on Wednesday, and hoped that it would usher in greater transparency in the electoral process.

Websites, he said, were key instruments of popular education, and the SEC website would not only help candidates but also researchers, scholars, and academics. It could help in the process of delimitation, he added.

The district profiles contained in the website, http://www.karsec.com and other aspects such as reservation rules, statutory forms, code of conduct, orders and notification, would help people get more information about the electoral process.

The SECs were not as much in the limelight as the Central Election Commission (CEC), but they had to overcome a much more complex system of reservation. Karnataka, he said, was the second State after Tamil Nadu to come up with an SEC website.

Transparency and accessibility were two sides of the same coin in a democracy, and the website would go a long way in ushering in both, Mr. Chaturvedi said. He hoped that the website would be updated regularly.

Mr. Chaturvedi called for an amendment to make use of electronic voting machines mandatory.

The State Election Commissioner, C. Chikanna, said the website, which was in English, would be available in Kannada shortly. Set up in 1993, the SEC had been conducting elections to local bodies in the State, he added.

The SEC Secretary, B.G. Nandakumar, spoke about the different aspects of the website. Earlier, the Governor released the district profile of Tumkur.

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Governor inaugurates poll panel website