Chandigarh: A delegation of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday conducted an exhaustive district-wise review, on the second day of its comprehensive assessment, of poll preparedness for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections. All 23 District Election Officers, Commissioners of Police and Senior Superintendents of Police made detailed presentations on the status of election readiness in their respective districts.

The delegation comprised Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma, Deputy Election Commissioner Bhanu Prakash Yeturu, Director General (IT) Seema Khanna and Director General (Media) Ashish Goyal.

The visiting officials emphasised strict compliance with ECI instructions, complete transparency in all processes, timely completion of all pre-poll activities, and robust enforcement measures across the state.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab assured the delegation that all election-related tasks would be performed diligently, in a time-bound manner and strictly as per the Commission's instructions, to ensure free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections in the state.

Wednesday's review followed the first day of the same exercise on Tuesday, 27 October, when the delegation met the Chief Electoral Officer, the state police nodal officer and central and state enforcement agencies, and a First Level Checking (FLC) workshop trained officials on EVM and VVPAT procedures — coverage that is already live on Awaaz Punjab, with district-level FLC scheduled to begin on 12 November. Separately this week, the Commission also ordered transfers of election-duty officers, with compliance reports due by 30 November.

What happens next: district-level machine checking and transfer compliance will be the practical tests of this review. The Commission has not yet announced the formal election schedule.