The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation and Forward Bloc jointly held a protest demonstration at Mahatma Gandhi Marg in Bhubaneswar, demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar from office, the immediate halting of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and the restoration of voting rights to all those who have been wrongfully excluded.
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Communist forces of India demand removal of Chief Election Commissioner from office, immediate halting of Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, restoration of voting rights to wrongfully excluded
Communists of India demand removal of Chief Election Commissioner
CPI(M) State Secretary Suresh Chandra Panigrahi, CPI State Secretary Prasanta Kumar Mishra, CPI(ML)-Liberation State Secretary Yudhishthir Mahapatra and Forward Bloc State General Secretary Jyoti Ranjan Mahapatra were among those who led the protest and addressed the gathering.
The state leadership of the Left parties said that the right to vote is a fundamental right in a democracy and that the process of preparing, revising and deleting names from electoral rolls must be completely transparent, impartial, lawful and verifiable. No eligible citizen can be deprived of the right to vote under the pretext of administrative errors, software problems, ambiguity in documents or opaque procedures. They also called for the restoration of the independent and democratic functioning of the Election Commission and the replacement of the present system for appointing Election Commissioners with a mechanism based on the Supreme Court’s proposed selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.
Many other demonstrations are being made across India on the same issue.