The Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections has been sending weekly bulletins to the Election Commission on emergent issues from the ongoing Lok Sabha polls to draw its attention.
New Delhi: The Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections (IPMIE), a civil society organisation, has raised concerns over political leaders across parties resorting to hate speech to seek votes, the continued spread of misinformation, suppression of voter choice in Indore and Surat due to unopposed elections, and prevention of civil society members from interacting with foreign election observers.
The panel has been sending weekly bulletins to the poll body to bring to its notice emerging issues from the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The panel comprises Professor Neera Chandhoke (National Fellow at Indian Council of Social Science Research, and retired professor, Delhi University), Dr. Thomas Daffern (philosopher and historian, chairman of World Intellectuals Wisdom Forum, Director, International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (France and UK); Convenor, Commonwealth Interfaith Network), Sakhawat Hossain (former Election Commissioner of Bangladesh), Dr. Harish Karnick (former Professor, IIT, Kanpur), Dr. Sebastian Morris (former Professor, IIM, Ahmedabad), Professor Rahul Mukherji (Professor and Chair, Modern Politics of South Asia, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany).
Below is the group’s seventh such bulletin, shared with the poll body in the hope that the issues it raises are addressed:
Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections – 2024
https://indiaelectionmonitor.org/
Weekly Bulletin of Key Concerns. No. 7, 2-8 May, 2024
This is the seventh of our weekly catalogue of concerns about the integrity of the 2024 general election
(GE). As the Independent Panel for Monitoring Indian Elections, 2024, we have been observing the
2024 GE process and publishing our findings, periodically. The bulletin is meant to raise emergent
concerns, directly with the Election Commission of India (ECI), in the hope that these are addressed
speedily, also as a record of our concerns.
1. Continued appeals to religious polarisation for the purpose of seeking votes
The concerning trend of politicians resorting to religious appeals to seek votes continues unabated, in violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The Election Commission of India (ECI) has failed to ensure this does not happen and that the MCC is upheld.
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