Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gopalakrishna Dwivedi sought the cooperation of all political parties for smooth conduct of fair and free elections in the state. He said that the state Election commission has held a video conference with all the district collectors.

The CEO's announcement came at a press conference in Vijayawada after the Central Election Commission announced the schedule for General Elections 2019. Dwivedi said that all political parties were bound by the model code of conduct which had come into force as announced by the CEC.

Government officers were also bound by the model code of conduct with respect to implementation of welfare programmes and all government schemes. He warned all officials that the Election Commission will be implementing the model code of conduct strictly and that any violation would be viewed seriously and action taken. Dwivedi added that deletion of names is not possible and that any deletion can be done only with the approval of the election commission. He added that the state election commission has 1,50,000 forms which are being verified and for which state EC officials have sought the permission of CEC. Dwivedi added that these names would be deleted if the Election Commission of India permits. He also made an important clarification on addition of voters' name saying that March 15 would be the cut off date for online and offline submissions. The last date of nominations is March 25, the cut off date is set at March 15 so that the verification process is completed quickly. He appealed to voters of Andhra Pradesh to check their vote and apply for addition if required because there were only five days left. There are 3,82,31026 voters in the state who would cast their franchise in 45,920 booths. The state election commission had verified 7,24,914 applications under Form 7 till yesterday.

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