In the backdrop of allegations by certain political parties that the Electronic Voting Machines could be hacked, the Election Commission on Thursday said EVMs were and are tamper proof.
Allaying all doubts on the possibility of Electronic Voting Machine tampering, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla on Tuesday said the machines used in India are stand-alone machines and cannot be manipulated.
Accompanied by two election commissioners -- Naveen Chawla and S Y Quraishi -- Gopalswami arrived in Lucknow on Wednesday evening on a two-day visit. The team will also travel to Patna to take stock of the poll preparations in Bihar. India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has as many as 80 parliamentary constituencies. The state will go to poll in five phases, during which 11.62 crore voters will exercise their franchise at 1,28,112 polling stations.
The Centre has appointed Navin Chawla as chief election commissioner with effect from April 21, 2009.
Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Monday rejected social activist Anna Hazare's demand for right to recall or reject saying the move would endanger political stability in the country.
The notification for the President poll will be issued on June 15, the CEC said, and June 29 will be the last date for the filing of nominations.
Actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi met Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy in New Delhi on Monday to seek a common symbol for his party Praja Rajyam. Chiranjeevi, who was accompanied by former union minister P Shivshankar, submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission, requesting that the rules for issuing a common symbol be amended. As per the EC's rules, a regional political party needs to secure six per cent of the votes and two elected representatives.
Terming as "impractical" Anna Hazare's suggestion for the right to recall an elected Member of Parliament, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday said such a move will "destabilise" the entire system. "Right to recall in a big country like ours is impractical. It is not easy in a country where candidates are voted by lakhs of voters," he told reporters. He feared that if the right to recall is put in place, "elections will go on happening".
Unhappy with the Sports Authority of India's flip-flop over the dope testing episode involving weightlifter Monika Devi, Sports Minister M S Gill on Wednesday appointed former Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy to inquire into all aspects of the matter. Krishnamurthy has been asked to submit his report within a week, sources in the Sports Ministry said.
India has provided 1,935 electronic voting machines to Bhutan for the country's second national elections to be held on Saturday.
Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Beijing-based telecom and IT services firm China Enterprise Communications for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition was done through its wholly owned subsidiary, Tata Communications International Pte.
Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
Amitabh Chaudhary sent an e-mail on the decisions taken by the Committee of Administrators (COA) to Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, which had moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday on one of the issues dogging the BCCI.
Ramiz Raja part of ICC working group formed to review cricket in Afghanistan
The central election committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party will meet on Thursday to finalise its first list of candidates for five assembly polls, with top party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expected to attend the meeting.
There was no move to advance elections to the assembly in Kerala which would be held in the mid-May next year, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said on Tuesday.
Former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday suggested an annual compulsory audit of funds and donations received by political parties. "We want that all political funding should be transparent and checked. There should be annual compulsory audits by an independent auditor to be picked up from a panel suggested by the Election Commission," Quraishi said.
The speculations fuelled as August and September are times of floods in the state and this period will be followed by festivals like Bakri Id, Dushehra, Muharram, Diwali and Chhath slated for October and November.
On a day Ashok Lavasa's decision to recuse from model code of conduct complaints became public, the EC said the 'full commission' would meet on May 21 to discuss the issue of dissent and 'related matters'.
The legendary Seshan was not keeping good health for the past couple of years and he passed away at about 9.30 pm, a senior police official told PTI.
Aditi Phadnis profiles V S Sampath, India's newly-appointed Chief Election Commissioner.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday appointed Chandra as 24th CEC on Monday.
"So far, the Commission has not received any presidential reference on Sonia Gandhi holding an office of profit but the law is equal for all," said CEC Tandon.
Achal Kumar Joti will take over as the head of the Election Commission on July 6.
The Prime Minister's Office has sought clarity on a Rs 57-crore project of Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi to establish an India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management at Dwarka in New Delhi as the Cabinet note did not contain comments from various union ministries.
Karnataka Tourism Minister G Janardhana Reddy on Friday night said the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee's report -- describing as 'illegal' the mining of iron ore by the Obulapuram Mining Company owned by him in Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border -- was not that of the apex court. He said the report by the CEC is an 'ex parte report' since the Obulapuram Mining Company "was never heard before
The Election Commission on Tuesday said it has not yet taken a decision on the letter of Law Minister Salman Khurshid regretting his controversial remarks on the minorities sub-quota issue.
The campaign by Team Anna in Hisar Lok Sabha bypoll may have raised hackles of Congress, but the Election Commission on Tuesday said it did not violate any election law and the panel saw no reason for intervention.
'All I can say is that there is a disparity between the removal procedures of the chief election commissioner and other election commissioners as may be seen from the provisions of the Constitution. Everybody is free to interpret it on the basis of what is already there in the Constitution. But how it is to be interpreted is a matter which can be decided only by a court, perhaps,' ex-CEC T S Krishnamurthy said.
Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut were among the 16 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha from four states where polling was held on Friday after tussle over cross voting and alleged breach of election rules delayed the counting by around eight hours in Maharashtra and Haryana.
62-year-old Sampath will take over as CEC after incumbent S Y Quraishi demits office on June 10.
An Allahabad high court bench of Justice Shekhar Yadav had on Thursday last urged the government and the poll panel to consider postponing the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for a month or two and banning all political rallies amid the fears of an impending third wave of Covid.
Om Prakash Rawat, a former Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer who till recently was Secretary at the Centre, was on Thursday appointed as the new Election Commissioner.
Unlike the past when G V G Krishnamurthy, J M Lyngdoh, R Peri Sastry, H S Brahma, and V S Sampath held positions in the ECI representing all corners of India, this ECI will be North India-centric.
'There are certain states that need special attention. In terms of electoral records it is very bad,' Lyngdoh said.
The Central Election Committee (CEC) said that Blue and White party seemed to be taking a lead over Likud after 91 per cent votes were counted.
The confrontation between the Election Commission and the West Bengal government escalated by a few notches on Tuesday, with Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath asking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to transfer five superintendents of police and one district magistrate (North 24-Parganas) by 2.30 pm on Tuesday, after Opposition parties complained against these officers and accused them of being biased.
The Karnataka government has told the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowerment Committee that it could go ahead and probe the three former chief ministers of the state in connection with the illegal mining case.
