CEA seeks to fix upper limit of spending by candidates

During the meeting, Singh said that the election process in Cooperative Societies need to be streamlined to foster transparency in order to make the elections in cooperative societies free and fair.

“The Chairperson, Cooperative Election Authority said that there is a need for standard manuals and codes of conduct for cooperative elections. The discussion revolved around matters relating to framing of Code of Conduct for contesting candidates and Multi-State Cooperative Society (MSCs), to fix upper limit of expenditure by the contesting candidates, publication of handbook for the Returning Officers, election of delegates from member Cooperative Societies who are members in National Cooperative Societies and other agenda received from State,” the Cooperative Ministry said in a statement.

“One of the agenda proposed by participating State Cooperative Election Authorities included introduction of Electronic Voting Machine in cooperative election,” the statement said.

“The CEA decided to hold the consultative committee meeting every three months to take forward the reform process in cooperative elections,” the statement said.

The CEA was notified on March 11, 2024, by the Centre under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act of 2002. It is responsible for conducting elections of the Multi State Co-operative Society; and supervise, direct and control the matters relating to preparation of electoral rolls.