CEO warns candidates against poll code violations

Hyderabad, March 5 : Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal on Wednesday warned the candidates and political parties of stern action if they violate the Model Code of Conduct during Lok Sabha and Assembly elections to be held in two phases on April 30 and May 7 in undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking to media persons after convening a meeting with the representatives of political parties, Bhanwarlal said that the candidates should leave any column blank on the Affidavits that they submit at the time of filing of nomination. He said leaving the columns blank might lead to disqualification of the candidate. Stating that the ECI would strictly monitor the expenditure by candidates, he informed that as per the revised ceilings, the maximum limit of election expenses for a Lok Sabha constituency is Rs 70 lakh and for Assembly constituency is Rs 28 lakh. Each candidate will be required to open a separate bank account for election purpose and incur all election expenses from the said bank account, by issuing cheques.

The parties have also been asked to maintain day to day accounts for all election campaign expenses and submit the accounts to the ECI within 90 days of Lok Sabha elections and 75 days of the Assembly elections. Such accounts will be uploaded on the website of the Commission for public viewing.

Bhanwarlal informed that as on today, there are 6,24,61,612 voters in the State. He advised all voters to check that their names are in electoral rolls by visiting the website www.ceoandhra.in or by sending SMS. For SMS, type “VOTE (Space) Voter ID Card Number” and send SMS to 9246280027. In additional, a special camp will be organised at all Polling Stations on 9th March (Sunday) for verifying the name in the Electoral Rolls from 10 AM to 5 PM.  INN