The Centre has appointed Navin Chawla as chief election commissioner with effect from April 21, 2009.
For the sake of neutrality of the Chief Election Commissioners and Election Commissioners, CEC N Gopalaswami wants a bar on their joining any political party for ten years after retirement or taking up any government post. In a three-page note to President Pratibha Patil sent on January 16 when he separately recommended removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla, he has sought amendment in the Election Commission Act for the purpose.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com finds out how the government is seeking to change the RTI Act, and what impact it will have on the Right to Information.
The schedule to conduct the elections for the vice president's post is held up as the Election Commissioner H S Brahma is on a foreign jaunt. Moreover, the United Progressive Alliance-II is yet to appoint the third Election Commissioner.
"If the direction of satellites to Mars and Moon can be controlled from the earth, then why can't EVM be hacked," Udit Raj said in a tweet in Hindi. "If elections were held in America with EVMs, could Trump have lost," he asked.
The Election Commission on Wednesday put a lid on the standoff with Law and Minorities Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid after he expressed regrets over his "defiance" of the poll body over his remarks on subquota for minorities in government jobs in Uttar Pradesh.
India has provided 1,935 electronic voting machines to Bhutan for the country's second national elections to be held on Saturday.
Chawla, who was to retire in June this year, will get a five-year tenure as election commissioner.
'The EC should take permission from the PMO at the earliest and register FIRs against the two,' Kejriwal wrote in the letter.
Tandon, an IAS officer of 1965 batch, was appointed as Election Commissioner in 2001.
Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal, Odisha and Sikkim will also be held simultaneously, the Election Commission said.
Poonch district of Jammu region recorded the highest turnout at 75.42 per cent. Ganderbal district recorded the highest polling in Kashmir valley at 56.28 per cent.
Reasi district of Jammu region recorded 75.20 per cent voting, the highest in the union territory, State Election Commissioner (SEC) K K Sharma said, adding that 50.53 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the third phase of the maiden DDC polls in J-K.
As many as 74,44,260 voters would exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives in the 150-ward Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, according to official data.
'Coupled with e-filing procedures it would really enhance the ability of the judiciary to provide speedier justice.'
The President is bound by the recommendation of the Commission.
In case the EC doesn't hold elections within six months, the duration in which Banerjee has to become an MLA, the Trinamool Congress is ready with Plan B.
The full bench of the Election Commission will visit West Bengal on Thursday to oversee the poll preparedness for the last three phases of the assembly polls. Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and the other two Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and HS Brahma will arrive in Kolkata in the morning and hold meeting with the representatives of the political parties.
The Orwellian surveillance State is here. And here to stay, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
The move comes in the wake of Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalawami's contention that he has the power to initiate action against an election commissioner.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Singh Patel, as also former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa and poll strategist Prashant Kishor were among those whose phone numbers were listed as potential targets for hacking through an Israeli spyware sold only to the government agencies, an international media consortium reported on Monday.
The Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi's ruling party, is already in election mode.
Violation of the rules will attract a fine of Rs 4000, the chief minister said.
The schedule for the Bihar assembly polls, which will be held in five phases, is likely to be announced by Saturday. Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and Election Commissioner V S Sampath held detailed meetings with Home Secretary G K Pillai and chiefs of central police organisations to discuss the deployment of forces in the state during the polls.According to sources, the poll schedule is almost ready and it is being given its final touches.
A Trinamool Congress delegation met the Election Commission (EC) on Friday and demanded a high-level probe into an alleged attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram and claimed it was not an 'unfortunate incident', but a conspiracy.
The rally was addressed by BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav.
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 Navy Chief Admiral L Ramdas in his letter to CEC Sunil Arora said that the armed forces are not a "private force" belonging to any individual or political party.
Amit Malviya, however, tweeted that he had only quoted a news channel.
Rawat has a short tenure in his new role, but it is likely going to be an eventful one, reports Sahil Makkar.
Questioning the eight-phase assembly elections in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that she suspects that the dates were announced as per the suggestions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for better management of the BJP's poll campaign.
The channel, launched nearly two weeks after the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls beginning on April 11 came into effect, carries the picture of Modi as its logo.
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has asked opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka to direct his petition alleging bias on part of state-run media organisations to the election commissioner, before approaching the apex court.
The biopic was originally set to release on April 12, but its producers had advanced it by a week, claiming 'public demand'.
Terming Maharashtra as "the capital of paid news", Election Commissioner H S Brahma on Friday asked the media fraternity to stop this practice, which has attracted a lot of attention in the recent years and led to calls for self-regulation.
Arora also said he is confident that the EC will be able to hold the next set of assembly polls on time and the internal exercise for those is already underway.
S Y Quraishi, Election Commissioner, was on Tuesday appointed the new Chief Election Commissioner in the place of Navin Chawla, who demits office on Thursday.
In a curious case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing, the Law Ministry has released the letter written by former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami to the President seeking removal of fellow Election Commissioner Navin Chawla while the Rashtrapati Bhawan had declined to make the document public.
The Election Commission on Friday night dismissed suggestions of differences among its three Commissioners and said it disposes of complaints of model code of conduct violation expeditiously.
The government on Sunday rejected Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami's recommendation for removal of Navin Chawla as Election Commissioner, paving the way for his appointment to the key constitutional post. A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said President Pratibha Patil has accepted the government recommendation for rejection of the CEC's report against Chawla and arrived at a "considered opinion".
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