In a bid to empower voters with crucial information ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Saturday announced the launch of a new mobile application named ‘Know Your Candidate’ (KYC).
The app aims to provide voters with insights into the criminal background, assets, and liabilities of electoral candidates standing in their respective constituencies.
The Election Commission stressed that political parties nominating candidates with a criminal background would be required to provide a rationale for their selection. Candidates themselves would also be mandated to disclose their criminal history, which would be published in newspapers and broadcast on television three times.
The Know Your Candidate (KYC) app is available for download on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
Some of the features of the Know Your Candidate app:
• It allows voters to search for candidates by their names.
• It displays information about the candidate’s criminal antecedents, if any.
• It provides information about the status of any criminal cases filed against the candidate.
• It shows the nature of the offences that the candidate has been accused of.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be held in
seven phases starting from April 19. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.