New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) held a review meeting of the polling officials including Central Observers on Wednesday, where it reiterated the necessary instructions and guidelines to be followed for maintaining the purity and sanctity of the electoral procedures in two states and one Union Territory (UT) – namely Assam, Kerala and Puducherry, going to polls on April 9.

The EC team, led by CEC Gyanesh Kumar asked the Central Observers (General, Police, Expenditure) to ensure that “the elections are held in a festive mood, free and fair and free of any kind of intimidation, violence and inducement.”

The review meet, held ahead of elections, saw a total of 282 Central Observers along with the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of Assam, Kerala and Puducherry attending the briefing through video-conferencing.

The poll panel emphasised upon the strict enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct and also called for prompt action in case of any complaints of violations.

The observers were also asked to publicise their contact numbers and place and time of hearing the complaints from the public/political parties/candidates or their agents.

“They were also directed to oversee if trainings of Presiding Officers have been done properly with special emphasis on timely feeding in of data of 2-hourly poll voter turnout and other data on the voter turnout module of ECINET, proper application of indelible ink, filling up of form 17-C and sharing with the polling agents present at close of poll, deletion of mock poll data among others,” said an official EC statement.

Besides this, the observers have also been asked to ensure voters’ convenience by assuring minimum facilities at all polling stations including mobile phone deposit facility and benches in voter queues.

“Webcasting monitoring control room arrangements should be properly checked and trial run conducted in presence of all the staff posted there for monitoring, who should be well trained to identify and flag errors,” the poll body further said.

Notably, the Assembly elections are slated in 4 states and 1 UT over the next one month. With elections spanning 824 constituencies, roughly 17.4 crore eligible voters will participate in the democratic process. The voting process will involve 2.18 lakh polling booths, managed by approximately 2.5 million election officials. The Model Code of Conduct is in force in poll-bound states.

–IANS

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