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SCOPE Current Affairs

Gyanesh Kumar, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu named new

Elec on Commissioners

The President on Thursday appointed retired bureaucrats
Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as election
commissioners after a high-level selection committee headed by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in the morning — the first time
that election commissioners have been chosen under a
controversial new law just weeks before Lok Sabha polls.
The appointments came days after the retirement of one EC,
Anup Chandra Pandey, and the surprise resignation of another,
Arun Goel, left India’s poll watchdog with just the chief election
commissioner, Rajiv Kumar.
But the process was not without controversy as panel member and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan
Chowdhury gave a dissent note on the selection, raising questions over the procedure.
He said he sought the names of the shortlisted candidates, was provided 212 names the night before, and
handed a shortlist of six names before the meeting.

Russia Begins Vo ng In Three-Day Presiden al Elec on,

With Pu n Expected to Extend Rule

Voters began in Russia on Friday for a three-day presidential
election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir
Putin’s rule by six more years after he stifled dissent. The
election takes place against the backdrop of a ruthless
crackdown that has crippled independent media and
prominent rights groups and given Putin full control of the
political system.
It also comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third
year. Russia has the advantage on the battlefield, where it is
making small, if slow, gains. Ukraine, meanwhile, has made
Moscow look vulnerable behind the front line: Long-range
drone attacks have struck deep inside Russia, while high-tech drones have put its Black Sea fleet on the
defensive. Voters will cast their ballots Friday through Sunday at polling stations across the vast country’s
11 time zones, as well as in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine.