NEW DELHI: Describing election observers as beacons of democracy, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Friday instructed the 425 officers appointed as observers for the upcoming assembly poll in Bihar and bye-polls in other states, to promptly report any misconduct or unaccounted expenditure by the party leaders and candidates, while maintaining the highest level of probity and impartiality themselves.At a briefing for general, police and expenditure observers — comprising 287 IAS officers, 58 IPS officers and 80 officers from all-India services like the IRS IRAS and ICAS — organised here, CEC Kumar suggested that they familiarise themselves with all the election laws, rules, and guidelines and providing direct field inputs to ensure their strict and impartial compliance. Kumar was accompanied by election commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. Nine presentations on different subjects related to conduct of polls — election laws and MCC, expenditure monitoring, media and social media monitoring, ensuring equitable deployment of Central forces etc — were made to prepare the observers for the challenge of acting as “eyes and ears” of the commission in the field. Observers were instructed to remain fully accessible to political parties, candidates, and voters for the redressal of their grievances. This would require them to adequately publicise their contact details. The officers were also instructed to go around the constituency rather than staying put at one place. They were asked to regularly visit polling stations and ensure implementation of the recent initiatives by the Commission for the convenience of voters. These include allowing senior citizens above 80 years of age and persons with disabilities (PwDs) to vote by postal ballot, and creation of all-women ‘pink polling stations’ to boost female vote participation. EC appoints Central observers under the plenary powers conferred on it by Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 20B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. They assist the Commission in the conduct of free and fair polls and oversee the efficient and effective management of the electoral process at the field level.
