Election Commission to 'micro manage' Sikkim polls

Assuring its commitment to conduct free and fair assembly and parliamentary polls in Sikkim, Election Commissioner Naveeen Chawla on Friday said that they will 'micro manage' the conduct of the poll process in the Himalayan state.

Assuring its commitment to conduct free and fair assembly and parliamentary polls in Sikkim, Election Commissioner Naveeen Chawla on Friday said that they will 'micro manage' the conduct of the poll process in the Himalayan state.

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"The EC will micro manage the conduct of the assembly and parliamentary polls till the conclusion of the election process," he told reporters in Gangtok after reviewing the poll preparations with top civil, police and election officials at Chintan Bhawan in Gangtok.

The poll panel has asked the state authorities to implement zero tolerance for violation of the model code of conduct.

On apprehensions of EVM tampering, the EC said that as all the old 2000 EVM machines have been replaced with new ones, there should not be any apprehensions in anybody's mind that the EVMs have been tampered.

Besides, the EC has deputed eight central observers for conduct of the election process in the state, Chawla said, adding some of them will be stationed at the hyper sensitive polling booths for the April 30 polls.

The state election authorities have also been directed to monitor the speeches of political leaders by video recording to ensure that they follow the model code of conduct.