No party bias, went by regulations during elections: EC

Chennai, May 11: The Election Commission, which had come under repeated attacks from DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, had "no party bias" and it only followed rules and regulations, a top state electoral official said today (May 11).

"Only rules and regulations are being implemented. There is no party bias," state Chief Electoral officer Praveen Kumar told reporters here ahead of Friday's counting of votes for the Assembly elections held on April 13.

Kumar said the EC did not show any bias towards or against a particular party and it was only going by the book as regards conduct of elections.

The DMK president had accused the officials of EC, which had taken tough measures to prevent money-flow and other malpractices, of behaving like in emergency times and had suggested clipping its powers.

Karunanidhi had charged the EC with transferring top police officials including DGP Letika Saran and ADGP (Intelligence) M S Jaffer Sait, just because opposition AIADMK had complained against them.

Asked about his experience in conducting elections in the state, Kumar said it was a "satisfying process," and he did his job "with advise from people, media and politicians."

On Friday's counting of votes, he said the process would start at 8 am when postal ballots would be counted first.

EVMs would be opened half an hour after that, he said, adding, subsequent rounds of counting would be held only after the results of the previous round was announced.

To a question, he said that a total of around 61,000 cases pertaining to violation of model code, including distribution of money and violence among others, had been filed and 1378 of them convicted.

PTI