In a democracy free and fair elections are fundamental, as otherwise it would be an exercise in futility. Politicians in Power must not manipulate and dictate terms to officials whose mandate is to ensure free and fair polls.
IAS officers are transferred within three years but strangely Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mr. Kunal has been here for almost six years, from 16th November 2015. He conducted the 2017 Assembly elections with allegations of being very partisan in not acting against gross election malpractices by the ruling party.
The last no nonsense CEO was Mr. S. Kumarswamy who was shunted out of Goa in May 2012 for rightly refusing to bow down to the pressure of then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who was attempting to very high-handedly induct Alina Saldanha as a Minister even before that by-election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Matanhy Saldanha.
The current CEO Kunal who has expertise in managing EVMs has clearly overstayed in Goa and must move on. At least he cannot be entrusted with the task of holding the ensuing Assembly elections. And this must be ensured by the Election Commission which should bear in mind those words of the Former Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano “Organizing free and fair elections is more important than the result itself”.
