I'll not allow these elections to be deferred again: SEC on MCD polls

New Delhi: As polls for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi draw closer, State Election Commissioner Dr Vijay Dev gave a brief overview of the preparations leading up to the elections, new initiatives that are being introduced in the electoral process and why these MCD elections are different from the previous polls on Monday. Earlier this month, the Commission had notified that MCD polls will take place on December 4.

The unification of the three MCDs took place under the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act 2022. After the unification process, MCD wards went under a 'delimitation exercise' as mandated by the act. The number of wards under MCD's jurisdiction were reduced from 272 to 250.

The elections were supposed to take place in April as per the SEC, Dev stated that it was the SEC's mandate to ensure that elections are held as soon as possible which is why the delimitation exercise was completed in less than 3 months and polls were announced a few days later.

He also explained that it was SEC's mandate that the polls are not delayed further. While responding to a question raised by political parties regarding why these polls are happening simultaneously to polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh , Dev said: "I will not allow these elections to be deferred again".

The SEC has undertaken several initiatives to ensure that MCD polls are held in a smooth and efficient manner, Dev explained that the idea was to elevate these elections to the ECI level, whether that includes deployment of increased paramilitary forces, identifying critical polling booths, removal and action against illegal boards, hoardings and posters of campaigns, IT innovations such as the Nigam Chunav app, allowing the availability of householding voting for senior citizens (80+) and persons were disabilities on the basis of ECI's rules, 2 level of randomisation of EVM and polling parties to allow greater credibility and transparency for all stakeholders, integrated Electoral Rolls were prepared after incorporating all additions/deletion till the last date of nomination and ban on exit polls.

These initiatives will be integral for MCD polls to run smoothly. The SEC has ensured extra security by substantially increasing the number of CAPF companies to 170 this year; in 2017 only 40 companies were deployed for MCD elections. Similarly, the SEC has identified 3,356 critical polling booths at 492 locations across the capital, these critical booths will deploy micro-observers and use web casting at selective critical polling booths including deployment of drones for aerial surveillance wherever required in consultation with Delhi Police. 68 model polling stations which will have selfie points and facilities for senior citizens and 68 pink booths that will be manned by all women have also been set up by the Commission.

A total of 13,638 polling stations will be available for voters on December 4 across NCR. Every 4th polling station in the capital is being considered as a 'critical polling station'.

Another challenge that the Commission has paid attention to is voter turnout, as per the stats provided by the SEC, voter turnout for MCD elections in 2017 was 53.55 per cent only.

The SEC has introduced several voter awareness campaigns in order to exceed that turnout and hopes that they will come above at least 54 per cent this election. In order to increase voter turnout, they have also extended postal ballot services to persons on polling duties; there are over 2 lakh people on polling duty.

Earlier, postal ballots were only available to people who were in the service or defence sector. Dev said that the SEC wants to further the postal ballot services to other sectors as well but that those are "steps to be taken as we (SEC)

matures".

As per SEC stats till 14 November, 2022, a total of 1,45,05,322 voters will be participating in the elections. There will be 78,93,403 male voters, 66,10,858 female voters and 1,061 other gender. Only 45 per cent of the voters are female. Further on, there will be a total of 95,458 first time voters and 2,04,301 80+ voters.

Dev said that the SEC has worked very hard in order to ensure these elections go without any hitch, he said "We have burnt the midnight oil, have had many sleepless nights and will continue to ensure they are a success".