First phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election concludes with 74% voting recorded till 6 pm

  • Polling in Andhra Pradesh went on until midnight with several reports of faulty and glitch-prone EVMs and around 25 incidents of violence.
  • 74% voting was recorded in 400 booths at 25 Lok Sabha seats until 6.00 pm.
  • Andhra Pradesh held simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
  • Andhra Pradesh CM wrote a letter to Election Commission demanding a repoll at 150 booths due to faulty EVM.

SC asks political parties to submit details of donations received via Electoral Bonds

  • Centre had argued in the court that the voters do not need to know where the political parties are received their funding from.
  • Political parties have to reveal the details of the funding through the bonds to the Election Commission by May 30th.
  • The Court was hearing a plea against the use of electoral bonds for political funding filed by Association for Democratic Reforms and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.
  • Electoral bonds is a monetary instrument that can be bought at State Bank of India and be given to political parties anonymously who can then redeem the bond for cash. The scheme was introduced in January 2018.
  • Election Commission said that it is not opposed to the bonds but is opposed to the anonymous nature of the funding.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London

  • The founder had take refuge at Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012.
  • Ecudor withdrew the asylum it had extended yesterday.
  • The UK police arrested Julian Assange in connection with an extradition warrant from Sweden in an sexual assault case and a second case where United States had sought extradition “federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified US government computer”.
  • Wikileaks had released classified videos of Iraq war which was thought to pivotal in changing the perception of Americans’ support for the war.

NaMo TV stopped from airing political content without approval

  • All political content and political advertisement must be certified by Media Certificate and Monitoring Committee.
  • NaMo TV named after Narendra Modi is available on all major DTH operators.
  • AAP had complained to the EC against the airing of the channel and said that it violated the poll code.