Fast trial court for all poll cases: Election Commission

Hyderabad: The Election Commission is going to pursue cases of violations of the model code of conduct in fast track courts. “This time are we are pursuing cases of model code of conduct violations and criminal cases in fast track courts. The trial will be completed in six to 12 months. If the candidate is convicted then he/she will be disqualified as per provisions of the Representation of People’s Act,” said Bhanwar Lal, the chief electoral officer of Andhra Pradesh, at a meet by Telangana English Journ-alists Association (TEJA) on Saturday.

It may be noted there are several cases from the 2009 general election still undergoing trial and the candidates involved continue to contest. The Election Commission received complaints about illegal local Urdu channels (operated through cables) telecasting advertisements in favour of a particular political party in the Old City. CEO said these cable TVs have been operating illegally but the political party has not mentioned it in their expenditure accounts so far. Bhanwarlal said that the expense on advts will be taken into account to decide the candidate's poll expenditure.

Mr. Lal also said that the commission is closely watching poll expenditure of the contesting candidates and exceeding poll expenditure (Rs. 28 lakh for assembly contestant and Rs. 70 parliamentary contestant) will be announced on May 17. "Exceeding the poll expenditure will lead to disqualification of the candidate he/ she cannot contest for next six years.

On the biggest unaccounted cash seizure of Rs. 8.18 crore at Shamshabad in city, CEO said that soon name of candidate and political party linked to it will be announced. So, far a total amount of Rs. 124 crores of unaccounted cash has been seized in the state accounting to 56 per cent of the total amount detained in the entire state. While the liquor held is about 4.4 crore accounting to 80 per cent of the total seized in the entire country this polling season.