Abuse of Money Power in State Polls Rising: O P Rawat

New Delhi: Former Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat, who demitted office on December 1, has said that rising abuse of money power in state elections was the first and foremost challenge he faced during his tenure in Election Commission. Rawat said money power and fake news on social media are the major cause for concern on the global level. “The first and foremost challenge for us is the abuse of money power in state elections. When our machinery seized a lot of money in Tamil Nadu elections, we decided to countermand elections in two constituencies invoking our power under Article 324. That really had an impact and people became aware that this kind of shock too can come,” Rawat said.

“Social media is very responsible for all democracies worldwide because fake news can change the voting behaviour of the people and bring an outcome which is detrimental to the governance,” he said. Voting in Left Wing Extremist (LWE) areas and unattended complaints are the second and third big challenges, Rawat said, the Election Commission faced. Rawat said the failure of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) is not an issue. The issue is with the newly inducted machines, called Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), introduced at the insistence of all political parties, he said.

“Very recently, we changed the time of a press conference for announcing the schedule by three hours because I got a call from the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu that two constituencies are going for a bypoll. He requested me not to announce this because there was a forecast about a serious cyclonic storm. “We postponed the conference by three hours. It was interpreted by Opposition parties that it has been done to accommodate Prime Minister’s rally which was not the case,” he added. (IANS)

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