By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, FEB 19, 2020: NINE working groups of ECI officials and over 20 Chief Electoral Officers met over two-days' long conference in New Delhi to deliberate on the learnings from the General Elections to Lok Sabha and other elections held recently.

In his message to members of the working groups and CEOs, Chief Election Commissioner, Mr Sunil Arora, complemented the officers of the nine working groups for their pithy and cogent recommendations. He said that the Commission will look into the recommendations of the working group and after consideration and acceptance, the recommendations will be put up in public domain for getting views of the stakeholders. CEC Sh Arora was unable to be physically present at the concluding session.

Addressing the officers, Election Commissioner, Mr Ashok Lavasa, advised the Officers to make implementable recommendations. He said that while submitting their reports to the Commission, the groups should draw short term, medium-term and long term categorised actions for suggesting procedural or Rule or Law amending requirements.

Election Commissioner Mr Sushil Chandra said the ultimate aim of the exercise has to be making the registration and voting experience pleasant for the voters. He said while the Groups have labored to identify the existing gaps and way forward in electoral processes, CEOs should take due help of technology to streamline procedures for future. Sh Chandra cited the example of recent Delhi elections where Booth App, QR code slips facilitated the polling experience for all users.

The Commission had formed Nine working groups of CEOs and Commission Officers covering various facets of election process including Electoral Roll issues, Polling Stations management, MCC, Voting processes & Materials inventory, Capacity Building, IT applications, Expenditure Management, SVEEP and Media interface as also Electoral Reforms.

The Commission thanked and congratulated all CEOs and all ECI officers for the in-depth deliberation and effort put in over months to arrive at these recommendations and action point.