Calling politicians' apprehensions about the accuracy of EVMs (electronic voting machines) as one of his major challenges on hand, former Chief Election Commissioner of India N Gopalaswami on Friday said that a concentrated effort must be made to clear these doubts.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Cambridge Conference of Election Commissioners from South Asia, Gopalaswami said that the conference will see ECs deliberate and arrive at important suggestions to streamline electoral process in the countries of South Asia.
Expressing concern about the money and muscle power that have traditionally dominated the polling booth, Gopalaswami said that the Election Commission and political parties need to work together to curb this menace so that people get to have their choice of candidates to represent them.
Creating voter awareness about their rights is also one of the challenges facing governments, the former CEC said.
Meanwhile, Election Commissioner V S Sampath said that the EC is prepared to conduct the upcoming Assembly elections in 5 states, Assam, Kerala, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, that are scheduled to be held by May.