Parties will have to publish criminal antecedents of candidates, says ECI

Panaji: Political parties will have to publish the criminal antecedents of their candidates in newspapers, television channels and on their websites, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Wednesday, while assuring that systems are in place to ensure free and fair elections for the Goa Legislative Assembly.

Political parties will also have to give reason why they have chosen him/her and why they could not find a clean candidate, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra told reporters here. The ECI's team is in Goa to review preparations for the forthcoming Legislative Assembly polls. Chandra said the ECI has introduced a facility to allow people of more than 80 years of age to vote from home. The facility of casting vote at home for those aged 80 plus is optional, if they want to come to the polling booth, they can do, he said adding that around 30,000 people above the age of 80 years in Goa.

The voting at home would be video-graphed and the vote would be kept in a secret ballot, he added. The term of the present Goa Legislative Assembly is due to expire by March 15, 2022, Chandra said. The ECI reiterates its commitment to conduct free, fair, peaceful, accessible, inducement-free and COVID-19-free elections so that it should be safe for all the voters, he said.

Goa has always been reporting a high voting percentage. In 2017 (Assembly polls), it was 81.21 per cent and in 2012, it was 82.25 per cent, Chandra said. During a recent exercise, total 30,598 new voters were enrolled, of whom 16,807 are first time voters, he said.

There are 11.56 lakh total voters in the state, he said. Chandra said that keeping in view the pandemic and the social distancing norms, the maximum number of electorate is reduced from 1,500 to 1,000 per polling booth in Goa, due to which additional 60 polling stations have been introduced, taking the total to 1,722 polling stations in the state.