Om Prakash Rawat was appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Sunday, succeeding incumbent Achal Kumar Jyoti to the post.
The newly elected CEC Om Prakash Rawat on Sunday said he supports the government's decision of Aadhaar to be linked with voter's Identity.
According to an ET report, Rawat said that the Aadhaar-linking to the voter's identity will only be foolproof if the voter confirms his or her identity before entering the polling booth to get acess to an EVM through biometrics.
"I support linking Aadhaar to the voters' identity. Biometrics should establish the identity before a voter enters into a polling booth and gets access to an EVM. The identification will then be foolproof," Rawat said.
However, Rawat also said that he does not want any change in the EVM to integrate the feature.
The newly appointed CEC will be handling the upcoming elections in eight states - Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya in February; Karnataka in April-May; and Mizoram, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh later this year.
"As CEC, my priority will be to have a continuity of delivering free, fair and credible elections through the engagement of all stakeholders and to build consensus on poll reforms," Rawat said.
Om Prakash Rawat was appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Sunday, succeeding incumbent Achal Kumar Jyoti to the post.
Rawat was appointed as the 22nd CEC by President Ram Nath Kovind on the recommendation of the central government. Also, former finance secretary Ashok Lawasa has been appointed as the election commissioner.
Earlier, Rawat was appointed as one of two election commissioners of India in 2015 where he managed state elections in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Puducherry, Assam, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Rawat, who will take over as the CEC on January 23, is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre (Batch 1977). Prior to his appointment as Election Commissioner of India, he had retired as Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Department of Public Enterprises on December 31, 2013 on superannuation.
In 1993, in his first stint at Centre, Rawat served as Director/Joint Secretary in the Defence Ministry. During this tenure, he was deputed to South Africa in May, 1994 as United Nations election observer to oversee maiden elections in the country post-apartheid.
With inputs from agencies
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