Civil society group claims delay in EC permit for voter awareness drive

Founder member of Rajasthan Election Watch, Nikhil Dey, on Tuesday wrote to the state CEO on behalf of the group again, saying the group had met him many times in the past month and he even visited the EC headquarters in Delhi with the hope of meeting Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, but this didn’t happen.

“It’s been almost a month, and we strongly feel that by delaying our permission, our democratic rights as citizens and citizens groups are being restricted and curtailed…We feel the Election Commission should welcome voluntary citizen monitoring efforts. Regardless of the EC’s opinion about the utility of a citizen exercise, in our opinion the ECI has a responsibility to give us an answer within a reasonable time frame. The role of a citizen during elections is also regulated by the ECI, and therefore a delayed response is equivalent to, or worse than, a denial – as we have no redress we can seek until there is a denial,” he wrote.

Dey added that the group was not seeking any collaboration, but had no choice but to seek the election authorities’ permission as Section-144 had been imposed in the state.

Dey told The Indian Express that the group was informed the application had been sent to the EC by the CEO on October 23. He said Rajasthan Election Watch, which includes Aruna Roy, Kavita Srivastava and other civil rights activists, had been carrying out campaigns to educate voters for decades, but this was the first time that the application for permission had been sent to the EC to decide. He said the campaigns include asking voters not to accept liquor that is distributed as an inducement during polls.

The Rajasthan CEO and EC spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.