JOIN USThe State Election Commission of Karnataka has extended online enrolment in the electoral roll till midnight, Sunday.
To cater to physical registrations, all electoral offices will remain open on Sunday. But Sunday being the last day for new registrations to the electoral roll, the chief electoral officer Anil Kumar Jha has asked citizens to make the best use of the services.
As on Saturday, the Commission had received as many as 9,25,296 applications out of which 5,68,180 have been approved. On Friday alone, the Commission received as many as 95,423 applications from fresh applicants. “The number of fresh applications indicates that an encouraging section of the population is willing to vote this time,” Jha said. The State average in enrolment for the electoral roll is around 65 per cent.
Of the people who have registered, 98 per cent have an EPIC (Electors’ Photo Identity Card).
30 operational helplines
With regard to the helpline, Jha said the Commission would open about 30 operational lines in 24 hours and that extra operators will be pressed into service. The announcement came in the wake of complaints that voters found it difficult to connect to the helpline as it was burdened with too may calls. The chief electoral officer revealed that the Commission has received nearly 2,900 complaints from all the districts out of which 980 have been disposed of.
There are 1,500 additional complaints related to Bangalore itself, he added. These complaints deal not just with election Code of Conduct of violations, but include other queries and feedback with respect to voter registration. “The number of Code of Conduct violations would be recorded within the next few days,” Jha said.
With regard to allegations that a few officials in the City have been misusing government vehicles for political purposes, the chief electoral officer said he would initiate an inquiry. Reacting to media queries on the permission for use of government vehicles by Rajya Sabha member Rama Jois, Jha clarified that Jois had been granted permission to use the vehicle to travel from his home to the airport and nothing more. “No official is allowed to make use of the vehicles for political purposes,” he added.
Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath and two other members of Election Commission of India will visit the city on Monday to discuss issues related to elections with political leaders.