Legal hurdle may postpone Goa polls
SANDESH PRABHUDESAI, PANAJI | 13 February 1999 11:36 ISTGoa expects Assembly polls by May end, following the President’s rule imposed since last week. But can the election commission fulfil the requirement ? If not, then the legal hitch may postpone the polls till November, when it was actually scheduled even otherwise.
The problem lies with a summary revision of the electoral roll, without which no election can be held as per the provisions of the Representation of Peoples’ Act. Goa perhaps would be the first state in the country to hold polls without revision, if the EC waives the provision.
The ball has already started rolling to begin the process of summary revision from 1 April, which would be completed only on 12 July with final publication of the revised electoral roll. "Once taken up, it cannot be completed in not less than three months", clarifies Kewal Sharma, the local chief electoral officer.
But Goa has a practical problem in holding elections till October, if not held by May end, as the monsoons arrive here by first week of June, making it impossible to conduct elections due to heavy showers as well as the field work in the villages.
Though former Congress chief minister Luizinho Faleiro has suggested to prepone the revision process and complete it within one month, the local election office appears helpless. The actual revision takes place in the primary schools, used as polling stations, by appointing primary teachers as the designated officers. Both would be available only after March examinations.
As nine states complete their terms between last week of December to first week of April, chief election commissioner M S Gill had recently announced in Bangalore his plans to hold elections in all these states together in February 2000. It is still not clear whether Goa would be deleted from the list in the changed circumstances.
"Keeping the state in the hands of bureaucracy for such a long time is not good for a healthy democracy", opines Dr Wilfred de Souza, another former chief minister. Preponing the EC’s original plan appears inevitable as it would otherwise compel the union cabinet to extend the six-month long President’s rule for the third time.
Governor J F R Jacob has assured the people here to make a strong plea before the EC for elections as early as possible. But it all depends on Mr Gill, who may not take a risk of waiving a legal provision of summary revision to hold polls six months in advance.
Though the rolls were revised on 1 January 1998, it followed Parliamentary elections while section 21 of the act clearly states that no elections, either Lok Sabha, Assembly or the by-elections, could be held without a fresh summary revision.
The only loophole the act is having is "unless otherwise directed by the Election Commission for reasons to be recorded in writing", failing which the summary revision is a must. While all the political parties in Goa have started preparing for polls by May end, it ultimately depends on what the EC decides about the issue.
The tourist state otherwise has no other option than going for polls in November, which was a scheduled time even if the House was not dissolved and the President’s rule was not imposed.
