PANAJI : Taking a serious note of possible money laundering and abuse of liquor to influence the voters during the 2017 state assembly elections, the Election Commission of India has constituted a multidisciplinary task force to crack down on activities.
Elections to the state legislative assembly are expected to be held in the third week of February before Carnival festivities.
Addressing the media on the concluding day of the two-day visit to the state, Chief Election Commissioner Dr Nasim Zaidi on Thursday said the commission has taken cognisance of the large sums of money being seized in the state after the demonetisation and the anticipated abuse of liquor to influence the voters in Goa.
He said the most important aspect of the Goa elections would be possible abuse of money and liquor by political parties, candidates and their workers to influence voters.
“A multidisciplinary task force will be working at the state, district and constituency level comprising income-tax authorities, narcotics cell, customs and excise as well as taxation authorities,” Zaidi said.
He said that border check-posts would be on high alert and would be equipped with CCTVs. Other preventive measures would be taken up to prevent illegal liquor transportation from neighbouring states.
Zaidi said the commission has received representations from political parties as well as education boards regarding the examination schedule and the Carnival festival. “We will think over these demands as well as security arrangements and climatic conditions and take a decision accordingly,” he added.
Responding to a question on the voting rights to NRIs, the CEC said the EC was hopeful of providing e-voting rights to the NRIs.
“The Election Commission has made a recommendation to the Union law ministry that the NRIs be given the facility to cast their votes through electronic transmission of postal ballot. The matter is under consideration and we are hopeful that it would be cleared very soon,” he stated.
Currently the NRI has to register and physically cast the vote at the polling station. The electronic transmission of postal ballot is currently made available to the defence services personnel and could be extended to the NRIs.
Stating that the ECI has taken cognisance of the complaints filed by the political parties, Zaidi said the commission during its meeting with the Chief Secretary has sought preventive measures on the possible misuse of casinos to stash money and undue haste in finalising the ODPs.
He informed that the new voters list to be published in the first week of January already has 46,700 new voters, and that the commission received 15,200 applications for deletion of names from the voters list.
The total number of voters in the state after the summary revision carried out earlier this year is 11,07,431. Besides, the state has around 800 service voters.
Zaidi said that during the summary revision process around 30,000 out of the 39,000 first-time voters have registered with the commission, and for the first time 40 voters from the Wanarmare tribe have been enfranchised.
The ECI, however, has extended the registration date till December 24 to facilitate all those who have not registered their names in the voters list.