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SYMPOSIUM ON BEST ELECTORAL PRACTICES

(Zonal Conference of Chief Electoral Officers/Election Officers at Guwahati on 2-3rd June 2010)

PAPER ON BEST/ INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN ELECTION MANAGEMENT DURING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION 2009 IN MON DISTRICT OF NAGALAND STATE

PRESENTED BY

DINESH KUMAR, IAS

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER &

DISTRICT ELECTION OFFICER

MON: NAGALAND

(1) Security Management

Mon District is basically inhabited by one of the major tribes of Nagaland viz., Konyak, stretching/covering over 1786 sqm in area, because of the fact that there is only one tribe in the district there is no ethnic or communal problem. The District has 4 (four) sub-divisions namely – Tizit, Aboi, Naginimora and Tobu which are all headed by ADC’s but for DEF there are only two sub-divisions, one Mon HQR and one at Tizit under SDPO.

The District has 5 (five) police stations including District HQR and 4 (four) police out post namely – Tizit, Aboi, Naginimora and police out post Wakching, Phomching, Chen and Monyakshu which are all having road communication and wireless communication and mobile connectivity. The crime rate in the District is very low because most of the cases, even of heinous nature, is successfully settled/decided in customary court and only handful of cases are reported to police, except for Mon Town which is considered to be urban town of Mon District. It is pertinent to note here that the road communication in the District is in a very pathetic state and telecom connectivity is also very unsatisfactory because of which police wireless becomes the only source of communication for Most parts of the District.

Apart from the above brief the general law and order situation has been peaceful. However it may be mention that in 41- Tizit A/C there was considerable presence of both faction of the UG’s, NSCN (K) and NSCN (IM), because of the geographical terrain and also the porosity along the Myanmar, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam border. The situation was usually tensed but under control, however the involvement of UG factions could not be ruled out as we were getting regular complaints regarding their involvement and favoring one or another candidate. Secondly, 42- Wakching A/C there was presence of both UG’s faction coupled with the fact that been bordered by Assam the situation was slightly tensed but under control. As for rest of 7 constituencies, barring Mon Town which was apparently vulnerable due to the fact that people from all villages are settled here and who have propensity to create mischief, the rest of the constituencies were accepted to be peaceful. In remaining assemble constituencies there was presence of only one UG Faction i.e. NSCN (K).

The following challenges were faced by the Administration in conduct of peaceful and fair election:

•1. Reports regarding Movement of armed UG Cadres

•2. Complaints received from all political parties regarding use of NSCN Cadres and apprehension of booth capturing by the rival candidate

•3. Demands of more force deployment by the NGOs and political parties

•4. Situation was much tensed in Tizit on the eve of the election as the movement of UG armed cadres from both factions and enthusiastic supporters of all three candidates was reported from the sources and many grievances in this regard were also received. The all three candidates were asking for additional force deployment and patrolling in the areas where the rival candidates were having more chances or supporters to dominate the election process. Tizit area was more vulnerable mainly because the nature of the assembly by-election which was being conducted simultaneously with the Parliamentary Election. Even supporters from all the political parties were concentrated in the Area. The election became a prestige issue for the ruling alliance in the State and for the opposition. The Prominent leaders (Ministers & MLAs) from the ruling party were also camping in the area. The overall situation in the Tizit and surrounding villages was very volatile, tensed and to conduct peaceful and fair election was a big challenge in front of the administration.

•5. Apprehensions and reports regarding Booth capturing and practice of illegal voting

Steps taken to control the situation:

  1. Direction given to the security forces to dominate the area, to control the movement of armed UG cadres, effective patrolling was carried out by the CPMF in the vulnerable areas.
  2. Sector magistrates were directed to have extensive visit in their respective areas along with the SFs/ CPMFs to imbibe the sense of confidence among the electors.
  3. Daily monitoring of sector magistrates reports and further reporting to CEO
  4. 144 CRPC. Was imposed in the Tizit area on the previous night
  5. Vehicular traffic was stopped on the previous evening as there was apprehension of UG Movement in the vehicles
  6. Advised observer to visit Tizit area on the day of the poll due to various complaints of booth capturing and UG involvement
  7. Deployed additional forces(CPMFs) in Tizit area vulnerable polling booths
  8. CPMF Deployed in all sensitive booths
  9. Directed Zonal Magistrates for regular tours/checking along with police escort on the day of the poll and to take stern action against anti-social elements/problem creators
  10. Review meetings at regular intervals and field verification, tour with SP and Observer, held a coordination meeting in Tizitfew days ahead to election which was attended by the all political parties, candidates, all tribal NGOs, administration, police and other SFs( CPMFs) where it was made very clear that use of unfair means/violence/booth capturing/UG involvement will not be allowed. It was decided in the meeting to strengthen the patrolling, to setup more MVCPs, checking of vehicles, seizure of illegal liquor/arms and strict compliance of Model Code of Conduct by all concerned. Some anti-social elements, bottleeggers and UG Cadres were arrested by the security forces, illegal liquor was seized and flow of liquor was stopped.
  11. Good presence of the security forces and imposition of the 144 CRPC helped us in dominating the vulnerable areas and it created fear in the minds of those people who were trying to create disturbance and thinking about booth capturing. Even UG cadres got the clear message of the Administration and election commission that they might be apprehended and will not be spared if they will create problems.
  12. Used media for wide publicity and warned the defaulters/anti social elements by publishing details in newspapers, identified the habitual offenders and those who were involved in past election malpractices and violence, and they were booked under appropriate sections.
  13. Some Ministers and MLAs were camping in Tizit assembly constituency area even after the expiry of election campaigning, When my sector officers briefed me about this, I specifically told all such VIPs to leave the assembly segment area as all of them were not belonging to this assembly Constituency. The VIP Politicians got the message along with my intention that we are very serious about this; action may be initiated against them as per Model code of conduct if they still remain in the area, so they left the area immediately. Once the the senior politicians from outside area left the place, tension level also reduced.

(2)Sector Management :

The entire District was divided in 21 sectors while in the past assembly election, there were only seven sectors. We decided to increase the number of the sectorsdue to difficult terrain and inaccessibility in such a way that all sector officers can cover their areas of jurisdiction, can go for more visits in order to cover all the polling stations and to enforce model code of conduct. The sector officers along with sector commanders visited their sectors several times before the actual poll. Increasing the number of sectors really helped us in creating peaceful enviournment and more awareness regarding the poll process.

Sector management was implemented as per the following:

(A) 21 sectors and sector officers proposed

(B) One section of Police/CPMF per sector along with Sector officer

(C) One addl. coy for the district

(D) One more coy. for Security of persons/VIPs etc.

(E) Combine group of administrative and police officers for all subdivisions for enforcement of MCC

(F)Ban on use of any vehicles for transporting the voters on the day of poll

(G)Special accountability of the police officials at the thana level was fixed.

(3)Communication plan:

The plan for effective communication was prepared well in advance as telecom connectivity is also very unsatisfactory because of which police wireless becomes the only source of communication for most parts of the District. Wireless sets were provided to all the sector officers and sector commanders for timely reporting and confirmation of required action in the field. Also wireless sets were used in the areas where there was no telephone or mobile connectivity. Wherever there was mobile connectivity, extensively mobiles were used to gather information and to monitor poll exercise before and on the day of the poll. For theElectoral Information & Poll Monitoring System an alternative networking platform using the mobile phone was developed to effectively harness the available communication facilities and the networking technology.

The application gave an idea of the average voting percentage and the progress of poll, and also generated Voter Turnout Report (Polling Station, Assembly Segment and Parliamentary Constituency wise). All the stakeholders like the Sector Officers, Assistant Returning Officers, Returning Officer, and Observer could directly monitor progress of poll and address any problems immediately. The system could be used to closely monitor the poll process, collect data from various polling booths and monitor election process in general including tracking of arrival/ departure of the polling parties, conduct of mock poll, presence of polling agents/ micro-observers, deployment of CPMF and use of video/ digital camera at the polling station. The SMS Service of the mobile telephony was used to a great extent. The presiding officers, sector officers, sector commanders and other supervisory officers and involved staff could interact through SMS service and this innovation reg. using mobile phone and its applications helped the election machinery in tracking officials, information and better monitoring was ensured.

(4) Vehicle/Transport Management

  1. Requisitioning of vehicles was done from one source (DC) only. It was decided that SP Mon will submit his requirement of vehicles to us, then we will requisition for them also. Bill for the vehicles used by the police will be paid by the police only. This will be mentioned specifically in the vehicle assignment card by the in charge of vehicle management. We came to know that in the earlier conducted elections, the administration and Police requisitioned vehicles separately as per their requirement. There was less coordination and many vehicles of police pool remain unused while there has been shortage of vehicles with the administration to dispatch polling parties. Actually police escort along with the polling parties always go in the same vehicle convoy and because of that administration requires more number of vehicles. One problem which is generally faced while requisitioning vehicles is that there are not sufficient vehicles available in this District and we need to get vehicles from outside the District, either from Assam or from other districts of Nagaland.
  2. We had enough advance planning, assessed the requirement of vehicles for the conduct of election. Vehicle movement plan was prepared and this job was endorsed to one officer who was having a long experience of service in this area, he was quite well versed with the local conditions and the quality of roads. We assessed how many vehicles are available in the district which can be requisitioned, remaining we intimated to the CEO and DEO of other districts where they had additional vehicles. As the Mon district was bordering Assam, so we even used local contacts and many vehicles from the neighbouring district of Assam were also received. The quality of roads is not uniform and there are many areas which are unaccessible and having difficult terrain, so I had long interactive discussions with the officer in charge of vehicles and transportation, DTO, respective Administrative and Police officers and other members of the transport committee. We classified the roads in different categories and accordingly decided the requirement of vehicles as every vehicle cannot go to every locality. The polling parties were clubbed where big vehicles either Buses or Trucks were utilized to cover those areas where these vehicles were ply able. As per the distance and road quality, the vehicle movement plan was prepared in advance and accordingly vehicles were dispatched as per their departure schedule which was fixed in advance and mentioned in the vehicle plan.
  3. POL Requirement was also assessed properly as per the number and quality of different categories of vehicles as in the earlier conducted election, the POL Bill was on unreasonably higher side and liability was created which could be cleared after a long time. Emphasis was given on proper maintenance and one source of POL allotment to the departing vehicles, Assessment of petrol/diesel was made on the basis of actual requirement and categories of vehicles, for which interactive discussion was conducted with the members of the transport committee and the persons having adequate knowledge in this regard.

(5) MCC and Complaint Monitoring Cell

1.Complaint Monitoring Cell Constituted at District and Sub-divisional level

2.Daily Reporting to the ECI

3.Misuse of Govt. vehicles was not allowed for electioneering

4.Any and all advertisement at the cost of public exchequer regarding achievement of the party/Government in power was prohibited.

5.Prevention of defacement of property emphasized and action taken against the defaulters. The cost of removal of defacement was charged from the respective political parties and this was done first time in the election history of the District.

6.No defacement at public property/public places was allowed.

7.Use of liquor was prohibited. No liquor was allowed to be distributed during elections. The use of liquor has been a very common practice in the past elections, however this time more emphasis was given on this issue, NGOs were involved to create awareness among the masses and as far as possible the flow of illegal liquor was minimized to a great extent.

8.ADC (Hq) as Chairman at District level and Addl. SP as member

9.Sub-divisional monitoring teams were constituted

10. Action taken report were submitted regularly to CEO and ECI

11. Register were maintained to monitor and reporting, also as a subject of public domain

12. Teams were dispatched whenever complaints were received reg. violations of MCC

13.Wide publicity Was given regarding the Model code of conduct and relevant provisions thereof

14.Meeting at regular interval with the concerned Political party presidents, candidates and Tribal NGO Associations were conducted to create more awareness about the model code of conduct and follow up actions were taken in respect of violations, notices were too issued to concerned defaulters.

(6) Expenditure Monitoring & Planning

1. Advance planning was made regarding all the aspects of the election and accordingly estimated expenditure was proposed to the concerned authorities well in advance.

2. Regular monitoring was ensured in respect of ongoing poll- expenditure

3. Proper maintenance of accounts, receipts, dispatch was emphasized

4. Work distribution among officer to prepare a detailed District Election Plan and to execute it effectively. The order was issued in respect of important domain assignment among various administrative officers to ensure better quality work. This circular was issued well ahead than election, More than 02 months before the Scheduled elections. The plans prepared by various officers were discussed in one joint meeting of administrative and police officers which was conducted on 18/02/09 whereas the Election was conducted on 16th April2009. After the special meeting, the final plans were prepared on the basis of plan draft, corrections basing on feedback and discussions as per real requirement.

(7) Training for Presiding and Polling officers

The attendance was very less in the first training programme which was organized for the Presiding and polling officers and it was far less than my expectations. The Presiding and polling officers used to take election training so casually here and having the attitude that they can go for election without even attending formal trainings. Never before strong actions were initiated against them, so they thought that nothing will happen even if they don’t attend the training programmes. I took it very seriously and made it very clear to all the administrative officers that this will not be allowed and all the appointed Polling personnel have to undergo formal training programmes. We issued show cause notice to all the absentees, sent special messengers to deliver the notices to them as in Nagaland there is no village level revenue or government functionary like other states where they have Patwaries and Gramsevaks who are extensively used for all such purposes. However I directed my administrative officers to arrange special messengers DBs, GBs or other suitable personnel for this purpose, and accordingly they did so.