National Conference General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar Monday wrote a letter to State Election Commissioner (SEC) K K Sharma and apprised him about the apprehensions surfaced in the wake of “undue administrative inference” in the ongoing DDC polls.
In a statement issued here, Sagar while referring to the failure of the government to ensure a level-playing field in the ongoing elections said: “Candidates put up by the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration and others are immediately whisked away to ‘secure locations’ in the name of security and confined to those ‘secure locations’ disabling them to get in touch with the voters. What added to the alarm of the contesting candidates about the impartiality of the elections is the last minute changes that are being made in the shape of shifting polling booths to areas which are inaccessible and unidentified,” he said. He also brought to the notice of SEC that the contesting candidates were confined to hotels and not allowed to canvass fully to garner support.
“Providing selective security to contesting candidates also justifies the concern of all contesting candidates. The manner in which Police interfered in the mayoral elections to SMC also comes across as the undue interference of the administration in the democratic process. It goes without saying how all established constitutional norms were flaunted by downplaying the Model Code of Conduct and presence of Police officials in the SMC whilst the elections were underway. I hope that you will take necessary action at your end to ensure that all contesting DDC candidates are satisfied vis-à-vis location of places where polled votes are housed in the respective district headquarters. It won’t be out of place to say that the Election Commission itself, through various press conferences had assured that the election process would be free and fair but what is happening has raised a question mark on the obligations of the Election Commission,” he wrote.