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Putting an end to speculations surrounding simultaneous polls, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat on Thursday, 23 August, emphatically ruled out the possibility of holding simultaneous elections to the state assemblies along with the Lok Sabha polls anytime soon.
Rawat also said that a legal framework needs to be in place for holding simultaneous polls.
"The lawmakers will take at least a year to frame a law that can be enforceable. This process takes time. As soon as the Bill to amend the Constitution is ready, we (Election Commission) will know that things are now moving," Rawat said, addressing the reporters.
His comments come against the backdrop of BJP president Amit Shah's recent call for a "healthy and open debate" among stakeholders for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies.
While the term of the Mizoram Assembly ends on December 15, the terms of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan assemblies will end on January 5, January 7 and January 20, 2019, respectively.
The Election Commission commences preparations for the Lok Sabha elections 14 months before the scheduled timeframe of polling, Rawat said.
"The Commission has a staff strength of just 400 but deploys 1.11 crore people on poll duty during elections," he said.
"There is just a 0.5 to 0.6 percent rate of failure and such a rate of machine failure is acceptable, " he said.
Rawat also said the Voter Verified Paper Trail(VVPAT) usage is a new concept which was put in place after the Commission made a commitment to have 100 per cent VVPATs following "political pressure", he said.
In Meghalaya assembly bypolls today, there were complaints of VVPAT malfunctioning but that could have been avoided had the authorities there used a high humidity paper, keeping in view that there is high rainfall in the state, he said.
"You all know that Cherrapunjee, which records the highest rainfall, is in that state," Rawat said.
To a query, he said the percentage of NOTA option in elections is normally between 1.2 and 1.4 percent.
The Congress had then said two of its MLAs had cross-voted and showed their ballot papers to BJP president Amit Shah. The EC ruled in Congress' favour, declaring that the two MLAs had violated polling procedures and secrecy of the ballot.
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