Model Code of Conduct Violations…

To control the conduct of political parties and their candidates the Election-Commission issues a set of rules called the Model-Code-of-Conduct. The model-code-of-conduct becomes effective once the election dates are announced. The MCC include guidelines regarding general conduct, meetings, processions, polling day conduct, polling booth, observers, and, political-parties in power. In the general conduct, political-parties are barred from provocative speech on communal matters and wrong allegations against other candidates and political parties. Moreover, parties and their representatives can not offer anything to the public which can affect the poll-outcomes and that would be akin to bribe. Parties must conduct meetings with decency. As far as meetings are concerned, permission for using loudspeaker and conducting meetings is to get in advance by the political-parties and their candidates, and police restrictions are to be followed. The political parties and their candidates should inform the police about their procession and its due course in advance which will help the police in controlling traffic, and, the organizers must follow the rules and should not carry any destructive thing. On the polling day candidates should fully co-operate with polling-officials, and, should carry and show identity-cards whenever it is required. Distribution of liquor is one malpractice which is frequently prevalent in election seasons and should be stopped before 1 day. To much crowd on the polling-day is not permissible. Polling booths are barred from entry of people except voters and persons with ECI passes, therefore candidates should not attempt to enter polling booths without permission. ECI appoint many observers to conduct elections successfully and the candidates are free to complain any misconduct. Political parties in power should also follow the election commission’s guidelines and should not use the government machinery for influencing the voters; they can not take advantage of being in the government. This year many new rules have been added to the Model-Code-Of-Conduct. According to the latest Supreme-Court directive, now, the political parties should present the financing details of the promises they make in their manifestos. The limit for expenditure has been increased to Rs 70 lakh from the previous limit of Rs 25 lakh. Nonetheless, model-code-of-conduct is violated very often, and, liquor and cash is distributed to influence the voters. Effigies of opponents are burnt very commonly. As far as election spending is concerned over-expenditure is also very common…

The Election Commission of India has decided to stop illegal distribution of gifts, liquor, and money which are common election malpractices and are used to influence the voters. The commission seeks the reports on sales and distribution of liquor in every state and to other states also. It has setup posts on state borders to check illegal transport of liquor and money. Moreover, there will be three static surveillance teams in every state to check movement of liquor and money during Lok-Sabha elections. In Jharkhand the State-Excise-Department has installed CCTV cameras on all 22 liquor manufacturing units as per the Election-Commission’s directive. It is taking-note of every transaction and if there is anything unusual the Election commission will take the due action. Every sale is being monitored by the CCTV cameras and the footage will be provided to the commission. The Election-Commission wants to ensure that no free liquor is distributed by political-parties in the face of Lok-Sabha elections. The current police intelligence and Excise-Vigilance in all states will carry out inspection in suspected regions. On the account of two registered cases one truck is held at Karwar of Karnataka and Goa state border carrying Rs 34 lakh worth of liquor and another truck was detained in Bijapur district.  According to an election commission official, “anyone who is buying suspicious amount of liquor will be interrogated.” Compared with previous years’ liquor sales have been down significantly this election season. In Jharkhand this year (2014) 18.20 lakh liters of liquor is sold which is lower than sales, 32.59 lakh liters, in 2013. The sale of India-made-foreign liquor has seen a rise. In March 2013, 13.19 lakh liters of IMFL was sold whereas in 2014 the sales have increased to 14.79 lakh liters.

To check the use of money power to influence voters the Election Commission has established mechanisms including deployment of expenditure observers in every state throughout the country during the nine-phases of Lok-Sabha polls. The commission has identified states where cash distribution is more common and has taken a number of steps to check expenditure of the candidates. According to the Election Commission Chief, violation of the expenditure limit, currently Rs 70 lakh, is the most challenging of all. States like Uttar-Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnatak, Andhra-Pradesh, Tamil-Nadu, Punjab and Delhi has seen the use of money-power, expenditure and distribution, in the past elections. According to an Election Commission official flying-squads will be used to control illegal distribution of money to manipulate voters and to control over-expenditure. In order to check huge illegal money cash flows the Election Commission has directed the CBDT (Central-Board-of-Direct-Taxes) and FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) both under the Finance Ministry to keep their eyes on election finance… So far, the Election Commission has confiscated Rs 195 crore from all over the country, of which only Rs 118 crore was seized only in Andhra-Pradesh. 11, 469 FIRs were registered all over INDIA against complaints of illeagal distribution of cash and other-things. The Election Commission has appointed 659 officers from central revenue services in all the constituencies during the elections and they have reported confiscation of cash from all INDIA. According to the official data, election expenditure observers has also confiscated Rs 10.49 crore in Uttar-Pradesh, Rs 14.40 crore in Maharashtra, Rs 18.31 crore in Tamil-Nadu, and Rs 4 crore in Punjab...