Team Herald
panjim: To ensure maximum voters participation during the upcoming Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections, Congress has urged the Goa State Election Commission (SEC) to provide a soft copy of the electoral roll, which the party alleged has not been made available.
In a letter to SEC, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Girish Chodankar also urged the commission to direct Block Development Officers (BLOs) to distribute voter slips to ensure there is larger voter turnout.
Chodankar pointed out that for the elections, electoral rolls have been provided with a lot of delay and that secondly, the rolls have not been provided to the party or candidates in electronic mode/CD/digital mode. As result of which, he added, the voters’ slips preparation has to be done manually now and this has been taking up a lot of man-hours in a situation where there is already paucity of time.
He further charged that the officers appointed as BLOs are not distributing the voter slips as it was done for general elections as a result of which there is no voter awareness as to where the polling station is located and as regards the number on the electoral roll.
“This is against the Central Election Commission (CEC) guidelines to ensure maximum voter turnout,” he said.
Chodankar said that the endeavor of the Election Commission is to have free and fair elections and to have maximum voter turnout and hence these shortcomings need to be rectified immediately.
