05/24/08
Filed under:
General
Posted by:
site admin @ 12:21 am
Overall polling percentage in State put at 64.72
Special Correspondent
64.23 per cent polling recorded in third phase
BANGALORE: The State has recorded 64.72 per cent of polling in elections to the 13th Legislative Assembly held in three phases on May 10, 16 and 22.
The percentage of polling in 2004 Assembly elections was 64.9.
In sharp contrast to the comparatively low turnout of voters in Bangalore during the first phase of the Assembly elections, polling in the third phase for the 69 constituencies in the eight districts of northern parts of the State was a respectable 64.23 per cent.
The polling in the first phase was 66 per cent and in the second phase was 67.75 per cent.
District-wise figures
The percentage of polling district-wise in the final phase is: Bagalkot (67.47), Belgaum (70.88), Bidar (57.77), Bijapur (60), Dharwad (64.86), Gadag (65.80), Gulbarga (52.22) and Haveri (71.33).
The Election Commission has ordered repolling in four booths in Gulbarga district following failure of electronic voting machines. The repolling will be held on Saturday.
Repolling will be held at booth No. 170 in Surpur constituency, booth No. 30 at Shahapur constituency, booth No. 68 at Yadgir constituency and booth No. 98 at Chittapur constituency, all in the Gulbarga district, according to officials at the Chief Electoral Office here.
Results to be out by 3 p.m.
Special Correspondent
Information Department sets up media centre at Vartha Bhavan
Resource centre comprising 15 officers and staff set up
β Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.
For the big day: (From right) Principal Secretary, Information Department, I.M. Vittalamurthy; Chief Electoral Officer M.N. Vidyashankar, and Commissioner, Information Department, K.V. Ravindranath Tagore checking the facilities at the media centre in Bangalore on Friday.
BANGALORE: The Information Department, in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer here, has made all arrangements for providing information on the results of the elections to the Legislative Assembly to the media at the Vartha Bhavan on Mahaveer Bhagwan Road in the city, on Sunday.
Addressing presspersons here on Friday, Information Department Principal Secretary I.M. Vittalamurthy said separate media centres with have been set up for print, electronic media and news agencies. A press kit with an election compendium, background information of 2004 elections and CD with photographs of all candidates and other information would be made available, he said.
National Informatics Centre would provide exclusive information from each and every counting centre, results, party positions, trends and they would be displayed on a separate screen (Plasma TV) at the media centre both on the ground floor and the first floor. Arrangements have been made to get information from all districts, he said.
A resource centre has been set up on the ground floor which equipped with 15 officers and staff with the facilities such as 15 telephone lines and five fax lines, the Principal Secretary said.
Chief Electoral Officer M.N. Vidyashankar said results of all 224 Assembly constituencies would be declared at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Information at the State, district level and constituency levels would be provided to the media, he said.
Hi-tech vote counting in Karnataka
Special Correspondent
BANGALORE: The counting of votes will go hi-tech this time in Karnataka as the State is set to use a web-based technology to aid the process of counting. The new technology will enable computerised counting, computing and also transmission of the data to the Election Commission from the counting centres.
Addressing a press conference here Friday, Bangalore Urban district Deputy Commissioner M.A. Sadiq, who is also Returning Officer for the district, said the software was also being used in the district which comprises seven Assembly constituencies. The software titled βGenesys,β supported by the National Informatics Centre, is to facilitate online counting.
BJP, JD(S) accused of distributing money, liquor
Action against top officials sought for hooch deaths
He alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) had distributed money and liquor to voters during the elections, without any qualms.
Reiterating the criticism against the Election Commission for not heeding the Congress demand for holding elections after preparing the electoral rolls, Mr. Kharge said that 20 per cent of the voters, mostly labour class and farmers, were deprived of their rights.
Citing the case of polling booth no. 98 near Wadi Station in his Chitapur constituency, he said that names of some 143 voters had been removed a few months ago by the Commission.
But, they returned with their ID cards and were allowed to vote. An election observer, who saw this, had reportedly ordered a repoll in the booth, he said.
He said that the commission should not repeat this mistake in the elections which would be held in future.
Many voters were illiterate and should not be deprived of their right to vote.
The KPCC president alleged in many booths the polling officers had disallowed a large number of people from casting their votes, even after producing one of the 20 documents to prove their identity.
Hooch tragedy
On the hooch tragedy, the Congress leader demanded action against top officials and not a few juniors such as sub-inspectors, responsible for the death of people.
On the basis of important recommendations of various inquiry commissions and committees on the liquor tragedies in the State, a stringent law should be enacted to avoid recurrence of such incidents, Mr.Kharge added.
If 20 per cent of the voters, mostly labour class and farmers, were deprived of their rights to vote then the Election Commission should be scraped and an Election Committee akin various Parliamentary Committees consisting of representatives from all the Political parties should be in its place and should ensure that all eligible peoples names are included in the voters list before any other future elections. Till such time no elections must be held.
People must have the Right To Information from such a Committee to know all the information for Transparency
While the Election Commission boasts of Hi-Tech this time in Karnataka as the State is set to use a web-based technology to aid the process of counting. The new technology that enable computerised counting, computing and also transmission of the data to the Election Commission from the counting centres. Was it difficult to ensure that all the eligible people’s names included in the voter’s list with photo identity ?
Split verdict will delay formation of government
By all accounts, government formation is not expected to be an easy exercise unless one of the three main political parties in the fray secures a simple majority in the least. While the Bharatiya Janata Party is the only party which has been categorically stating that it will win a comfortable majority, the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) have refrained from such announcements for obvious reasons.
Election Commission was not heeding to the demand for holding elections after preparing the electoral rolls, stating that the new Government has to be formed on 28-05-2008 as per the Constitution of India. Such an action might only help Communal Party which claims of majaority. The secular forces must see that a proper Election Committee in line with any other Parliamentary Committee representing all political parties is formed for future free and fair elections after including all elegible people in voter’s list with photo identity cards.
βEC strictures led to more spendingβ
Special Correspondent
Candidates could not reach voters through cheaper modes of publicity
Delimitation compounded the woes of candidates
Bangalore: The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee on Friday opined that the restrictions imposed by the Election Commission of India forced the candidates to spend more, as they were unable to reach their voters through the cheaper modes of publicity such as mikes fitted on autorickshaws in the countryside.
Addressing presspersons, KPCC election spokespersons B.L. Shankar, V.R. Sudarshan and K.H. Srinivasa said that the District Returning Officers took different views in their jurisdictions in imposing restrictions on using autorickshaws and mikes in public meetings. It happened in Chikmagalur district, Mr. Shankar said.
The problem of the candidates, mostly new ones, was compounded this time because of the delimitation of the constituencies and most of them did not know their voters. The holding of elections should not be too technical as it would take of the flavour from it, they said.
The Election Commission, Mr. Shankar said, should experiment with more debates by the media in future. Mr. Srinivasa and Mr. Sudarshan said that it was strange that mikes were allowed to be used during Ganeshotsavas and hoardings by film industry and the birthday of personalities, and political parties were barred from using it. Are the political parties and politicians criminals to be ostracised like this? they asked. A serious exercise such as elections should not be left to the whims and fancies of the officials, they said.
On the election prospects, Mr. Shankar said admitting that the Congress faced a serious challenge by its own workers, and that 12persons joined the Bahujan Samaj Party.
http://jamnagar-news.blogspot.com/2008/05/rajkot-municipal-building-burns.html
Almost all political parties are up for creating mess out of this issue, Bahujan Samaj Party is arranging a Dharna, Rebal BJP is carrying out a signature campaign, Congress is simply doing protests, even less known NCP is up for a fight.
This controversy erupted when new building of Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMS) constructed inside central zone of Ambedkar Bhawan was resolved to be named as the Chiman Shukla Building.
This turmoil reached to Jamnagar and all over Saurashtra, In Jamnagar these parties protested against District Collectorate at Lal Bunglow, In Kalavad situation got worse and Police was called in for help, similar incidents are felt all over Saurashtra
Leave a Reply