Cong breaking democratic norms: TDP

Visakhapatnam, Mar 17 (UNI) Telugu Desam Party (TDP) today accused the Congress Government in the state with contravening democratic norms by not proposing a full time Chief Electoral Officer to the Election Commission (EC) despite repoll for Visakhapatnam-I Assembly seat due to be held in the state.

Speaking to reporters here, TDP Vice President M V V S Murthy said the date of repoll had to be rescheduled more than once mainly because officials were not giving right feedback to the Election Commission as the post of Chief Electoral Officer was held by a part-time official.

The EC had ordered the repoll after countermanding the elections held on February 19 citing large scale malpractices. It had fixed March 25 as the repoll date but rescheduled it to April 24 following government's request as the date clashed with SSC examinations in the city.

'The district officials are a confused lot and there is lack of coordination between the administration and the government. If the government cannot hold a minor election like the re-poll to a single Assembly segment in a peaceful manner, what else it is competent of?' he asked.

The government should now suggest a sincere officer for CEO's post to the EC after owning responsibility for the mess. The Commission was also not happy with the list of officers sent by the state government, he claimed.

The government had caused lot of inconvenience to the public as a number of developmental activities had come to standstill due to EC postponing the repoll, he said.

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