india

Updated: Mar 05, 2019 23:25 IST

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora on Friday voiced confidence that Lok Sabha elections will be held on time notwithstanding this week’s tensions between India and Pakistan, including air skirmishes over the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Arora, who is here with a team of Election Commission of India (ECI) officials on a three-day visit to review poll preparations in Uttar Pradesh, told a press conference that the ECI was ready to conduct the elections on time. The schedule for elections to the 543-member Lok Sabha will be announced soon at a press conference in Delhi, Arora said.

It is believed that the elections could be announced as early as the end of next week and be held in second half of April and May.

The election schedule is prepared taking into consideration the availability of security forces to ensure peaceful voting, transportation logistics, festivals and examination schedules.

“We already have held several rounds of meetings with the ministry of home affairs on the availability of central paramilitary forces,” he said.

The CEC also said a committee had been constituted to monitor content on social media during the polls. The election watchdog has been concerned about the possible influence the spread of fake news and biased and inflammatory content on social networks have on the election outcome. Twitter, Facebook and Google have said they had put in place measures to check such content during the elections. They have also put in place norms for political advertising.

The CEC said officials have been directed to take action in cases of hate speech even before the implementation of the model code of conduct that comes into effect after the election schedule is announced. He also said the ECI has amended Form 26, an affidavit that is required to be submitted by candidates filing their nomination papers for contesting elections, in terms of details of their assets.