PANJIM, SEPT 27
Pilerne Citizens Forum on Monday faxed a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner of India Dr S Y Quraishi calling upon him to defer the October 18 Valpoi by-poll till the electoral rolls all over Goa were prepared by following uniform ECI guidelines.
PCF, which is taking the matter to the High Court, continues to maintain any election based on the present electoral rolls would be illegal as the ECI had admitted there was a case in what the forum had presented before it and called for an inquiry.
It may be recalled the forum had presented documentary evidence to prove that uniform ECI guidelines had not been followed while adding voter names to the electoral rolls in Goa.
The copy of the letter has been faxed to the Secretaries of ECI Bernard John and K F Wilfred, Director Administration ECI and State Chief Electoral Officer Gonesh Koyu.
Advocate Yatish Naik, legal adviser to PCF, maintained PCF would, anyway, approach the High Court over the matter, but we thought it would be better to send a final reminder to the ECI over the much-assured inquiry. There are a few days left for the election and we are hurrying with our plea, he stated.
In the letter, the forum informed the ECI that the joint CEO Goa in his communication dated 29/07/2010 had admitted that ‘The mamlatdars/ERO’s have not provided the details of the procedures. May be they have thought that information provided by them was enough as they did not know the exact information required.’
The letter further reminded that Chief Minister Digambar Kamat too had admitted on 05/08/2010 that different mamlatdars had given different answers on procedures followed to enrol voter names and that he had told the State CEO to call them as they were supposed to follow uniform ECI guidelines.
Adv Naik once again maintained it was now for the people to question the roll of the election authorities in the State whether election based on the electoral rolls under scanner of ECI would be free and fair.
