State CEOs analyse conduct of State Assembly Elections in 2023 in 2-day meet

New Delhi: Ahead of the General Elections of 2024, the Election Commission of India (ECI) organised a conference with the chief electoral officers (CEOs) of all States and Union Territories at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in New Delhi.

The two-day conference on January 11 and 12 was held to share experiences and lessons learnt from the recently-held State Assembly Elections in 2023 along with thematic discussions on election planning, expenditure, monitoring, electoral roll, IT applications, data management, EVM/VVPAT, SVEEP strategy, media and communication.

From Telangana, Lokesh Kumar, additional CEO and Sarfaraz Ahmed, joint CEO attended the conference and made a presentation at the CEOs’ conference sharing the best practices implemented in the recently-concluded elections to the Telangana State Assembly.

The officials informed that their presentation focused on conduct of weekly meetings with political parties at electoral registration officers (ERO) level, enrolment of young voters (18-19 age group), gender ratio of roll improved to 1000.2 from 972 during 2018, purification of roll that is correction of electoral details, recertification of Photo Similar Entries (PSE) deletions, conversion of non-standard EPIC to standard and printing and distribution of new EPIC cards, coordinated efforts to curtail expenditure, C-vigil, Suvidha portal, arrangement of 100 per cent webcasting in urban areas etc.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar complimented the CEOs of states, where polls were conducted successfully for free, participating, peaceful and inducement-free elections. Motivating the CEOs, Rajiv Kumar said that a solid set of preparations is in place for the parliamentary elections in 2024. He stated that the thrust of the upcoming elections would be to ensure the best possible experience for the voters. He said that the conference would provide an opportunity for all CEOs to learn from each other’s experiences and challenges.