SEC playing ducks and drakes with civic polls, says source

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (SEC), which faces accusations of showing little enthusiasm in conducting the civic polls, seems to have found an unlikely ally in the main opposition DMK to delay the process further. The SEC is now said to be busy with the court cases filed by the DMK and is ducking the issue of civic body polls over for the past eight months without taking up any poll work, admitted a highly placed state official who is coordinating with the SEC for the past six months.

“After hibernating for more than five years, the autonomous State Election Commission, vested with the only job of conducting local body polls, now wants three more months from the Madras High Court to conduct local body polls”, said an informed official. “The SEC has successfully delayed the local body polls since last October thanks to the DMK and the Madras High Court proceedings. In a notification on Thursday SEC admitted that they want time to prepare the electoral rolls and complete ward notification works. The SEC has no major role in both tasks. The voter rolls were ready with the office of chief electoral officer at secretariat, updated during the national voters day observed on January 25. The notification of wards and roll revision is done by district collectors who are district election officers. So who stopped them from doing this work since last year”, the official asked, exposing the SEC.

“It is clear now the SEC has been dilly-dallying and waiting for the political clearance from the state forgetting that it is an autonomous body aimed to empower the local bodies,” said Rajya Sabha MP and DMK party headquarters secretary, RS Bharathi. The matter is now between the court and SEC. “If the new state election commissioner gives a concrete undertaking in the court, the DMK is ready to withdraw the contempt petition against SEC filed for not abiding the court orders”, he said.