Articles about voting issues in the Republic of India.
The Kerala State Election Commission (SEC) Monday decided to request the state government to amend the laws and make photo-ID cards mandatory for the electorate in the local bodies polls. Speaking to IANS, an official attached to the state election commission said the panel would ask the state government to amend the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Municipalities Act to enforce photo-ID rule. Read More »
Election officials counted votes Tuesday in crucial polls in five Indian states that could provide a boost for the ruling Congress party’s national coalition, or cripple it for the last two years of its term. The most critical results are expected from the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, where Rahul Gandhi has put his reputation on the line for a strong Congress party showing. Gandhi, touted as Congress’ next prime ministerial candidate, campaigned relentlessly for months to oust the government of Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents bottom caste dalits. If Congress doesn’t significantly build on the paltry 22 seats it controls in the 403-strong state assembly, it would be a devastating blow to Gandhi’s aspirations to be taken seriously as a national leader. Read More »
During first two phases of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, over 300 voters chose not to vote for any candidate and exercised the “Section 49-o” option available to them under Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. However, lakhs of others who did not find any contestant “suitable” preferred to skip voting by staying at home. Citizens now want that ‘no-vote’ option must be available on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and number of such voters should be counted. During 2009 Lok Sabha (LS) and assembly polls, many exercised the Section 49-o They, however, had to face nightmares at polling booths as officers were completely unaware of this provision. Read More »
After some electronic voting machines (EVMs) were found defective in Sangli, Kolhapur and Beed districts during the zilla parishad elections, activists are now raising serious doubts about the accuracy of the machines. Pune-based civil engineer and social activist Mukund Lagoo, who is also an accused in the EVM theft case registered with Mumbai Police, said EVMs can be tampered with in a span of two-and-a-half minutes or it could have technical errors and in such a condition if you press any button the vote could be directed to a particular candidate. Speaking to The Indian Express, Lagoo said there have been several cases in different parts of the country where EVMs had problems, hampering the election process. Read More »
The ‘No-Vote’ option would not be available in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) for the civic polls, the Central Election Commission (CEC) and State Election Commission (SEC) informed the Bombay high court on Monday. A division bench of justice DD Sinha and justice VK Tahilramani was hearing a PIL filed by Thane doctor Mahesh Bedekar, seeking to maintain the privacy of people choosing not to vote for any candidate. An affidavit filed by chief electoral officer Debasish Chakrabarty before the high court stating that the Election Commission of India had considered the issue of providing a separate ‘None of the above’ panel in the EVMs. Read More »
The Election Commission of India (ECI) and State Election Commission (SEC) today informed the Bombay High Court that it would not be possible to install a `No Vote’ panel on the Electronic Voting Machines to be used in the municipal and Zilla Parishad elections in Maharashtra, to be held this month. The division bench headed by Justice D D Sinha was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Thane-based Dr Mahesh Bedekar, seeking no-vote option in EVMs, as the present system does not guard the secrecy of the voter casting a negative vote. Read More »
The Election Commission’s assurance of peaceful elections came a cropper on the first day of polling in Manipur when seven persons, including a CRPF jawan and four poll officials, were killed even as an 82% turnout was recorded on Saturday. DGP R Baral said a suspected NSCN(IM) militant entered a booth at Thampi polling station in Chandel constituency and asked officials to stop polling. When they refused, he fired at them. A few CRPF men rushed in and returned fire, killing the rebel. “Six persons were killed on the spot. An injured later died in hospital,” said Baral. Among the deceased was a minor girl who had accompanied relatives to the booth. It’s learnt that three Naga militants entered the booth posing as voters. While one began firing from a pistol and was killed, the other two escaped, said a source. Read More »
The Election Commission has said it was keeping a watch on “violent” and “extremist activities” in Manipur, where militants triggered another bomb blast on Friday, and asked the authorities to take stringent measure to ensure a peaceful Assembly poll on Saturday. ”Commission has noticed some violent and extremist activities taking place in certain areas of the state of Manipur in the run up to the polling in that state. This has included attacks on personnel on polling duty,” a statement issued in New Delhi said. The commission said it has taken “all measures for free, fair and peaceful election in Manipur with full and fearless participation of voters”. Read More »
The Election Commission has defended its order to cover statues of Mayawati and elephants in UP and lashed out at the chief minister for attributing anti-casteist motives to its January 8 directive. Rejecting BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra’s plea that EC reconsider its decision as the statues were erected with “party funds,” the poll panel, in a strongly-worded statement, said “the order is in accordance with the law and in keeping with its constitutional mandate for ensuring level playing field during the elections with the objective of ensuring free and fair polls. The commission reminded BSP about a complaint it received in 2009 seeking freezing of the elephant symbol on account of its misuse through erection of elephant statues across the state. Read More »
The Delhi High Court has said that there is no evidence to back petitioner and Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy’s plea that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) can be tampered with. The High Court has called for wider consultations before a decision is taken and said that it is difficult to issue any directions to the Election Commission (EC) on EVMs as of now. In his plea, Swamy had demanded that receipts be given for ballots cast on EVMs claiming that the EVM system was not transparent. Read More »
These giant stone elephants sitting on their pedestals in a huge park outside Delhi are a symbol of India’s political development. Built here and in Uttar Pradesh’s capital city of Lucknow, along with other massive stone and bronze monuments, stupas, and domes at a reported cost of Rs4,500 crore ($1bn), they are designed to glorify Kumari Mayawati, the state’s controversial chief minister and be a symbol of empowerment for her Dalit low caste. India’s Election Commission ordered last week that all the elephants, and statues of Mayawati, should be covered for the duration of the state’s current assembly elections – polling takes place next month. The chief election commissioner, S.Y.Qureshi, said this was done to stop Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) gaining “political mileage” from the displays – just, he said, as pictures of political leaders are removed from government offices during polls. Read More »
A court in Delhi on Tuesday declined to direct India’s Election Commission to have paper receipts of votes recorded on electronic voting machines (EVMs), or go back to ballot paper. The High Court of Delhi said that there may be security issues with EVMs, as pointed out by petitioner Subramanian Swamy, a prominent politician, and asked India’s Election Commission to resolve the issues in consultation with stakeholders including the country’s Parliament. Swamy had earlier argued that EVMs could be tampered with, a view he shares with a number of researchers and activists in the country. He said in a telephone interview that the Election Commission will now have to have to get into consultations with all concerned parties, including him, to resolve the security issues. “You can say that, de facto, I have won the case,” he added. Read More »
BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday described the Election Commission’s order to cover her statues and those of her party’s election symbol, the elephant, as “casteist and anti-Dalit”. Accusing the EC of buckling under pressure from the Congress, she said following its constitutional responsibility with honesty, the EC should have issued directives to get Congress’ poll symbol and RLD’s symbol ‘handpump’ covered like the statues of elephant. Read More »
Finally breaking her silence on the controversy over covering of her statues and that of elephants in dalit memorials on the order of the Election Commission (EC), UP chief minister Mayawati on Sunday devoted much of her birthday speech to hit out at EC officials. She said that EC’s decision to cover statutes in dalit memorial built by her government was one-sided and unfair. Unlike the grand celebrations on her birthdays in previous years, this time the event was a low-key affair because of election code of conduct. However, Mayawati used the opportunity to launch her election campaign by declaring the list of candidates for the elections to be held in February. Read More »
A day after the Uttar Pradesh government complied with the Election Commission’s deadline to cover all statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and her party’s election symbol, the elephant, the Bahujan Samaj Party has hit out at the poll panel saying the decision was one-sided and had hurt the sentiments of the downtrodden. In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, senior party leader Satish Chandra Mishra questioned the commission’s intention to conduct free and fair elections in the state, which will see voting over seven phases in February. He claimed that the decision was unjustified and was a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. Read More »
The State Election Commission is impressed with Thane Municipal Commissioner (TMC) R A Rajeev’s idea of counting the votes immediately after the polling, and will urge nine other civic corporations to follow suit. However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is opposed to the idea, and will have the counting a day after the February 16 polls. In the system adopted by TMC, the polling stations are mapped and connected to a central server through SIM cards that will be used in a protected manner (Thane civic polls are slated for February 16). These SIM cards will be given to polling station staff through which they can communicate only to the control room number and the server. Read More »
Under Election Commission orders, the Uttar Pradesh administration started draping statues of chief minister Mayawati and the ruling BSP’s symbol in Noida on Sunday even as an official declared that it would be done fully in Lucknow on Monday. The Election Commission wants every statue of elephant and each statue of Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh should be covered by 5 pm on Wednesday.
The elephant motifs and her four faced statues in the company of Dalit greats were Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s attempt to immortality. So, on Sunday, when acting on an Election Commission directive the departments that built her monuments came to mask them, they triggered politics and drama. In all, nearly 100 statues had to be covered in Lucknow and Noida.
First, the officials ran out of sheets and ideas. Then came the realisation that the Election Commission was yet to send an official order for covering the statues. So the covers came off. But, the Lucknow District Magistrate said in the evening that they have received the order and it will be implemented Monday onwards. Read More »
The Election Commission (EC) late on Saturday directed state government to remove director general (DGP) of police Brij Lal and principal secretary home department Fateh Bahadur Singh from their respective posts. Lal and Bahadur have been replaced by Atul Kumar and Manjit Singh. The decision came after opposition parties demanded that the two officers should be removed if EC wants free and fair state assembly elections to be held in February.
The Bahujan Samaj party (BSP) in retaliation has cried foul describing removal of the two officers hailing from the schedule castes as an insult to the dalit community. The BSP also came down heavily on the EC for its order to drape chief minister Mayawati’s statue and those of elephants in various dalit memorials in view of elections. The EC directed to cover the statutes so that they cannot become a medium to influence votes because the election symbol of the BSP is elephant. Read More »
The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra Election Commission to consider including the column for ‘Negative Vote’ in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) so as to ensure secrecy.
A division bench headed by Justice D D Sinha was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Thane based doctor Mahesh Bedekar stating that when secrecy is maintained while a voter casts his vote for a candidate, the same should also be ensured when a person wants to cast a negative vote.
“By casting a negative vote, the voter decides not to vote for any of the available candidates. When a voter wishes to do so, he or she is asked to fill out a separate form and a register is also maintained with name and details of the voter. Chances of the person being harassed is there,” Sanjeev Gorwadkar, petitioner’s advocate argued. Read More »
Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi hereon Friday, issued strict guidelines to ensure free and fair assembly elections in Uttarakhand. Briefing the mediapersons about the preparations, the Chief Election Commissioner revealed that observer’s teams will keep a tab on all activities of the candidates to ascertain if they are indulging in resorting to money and muscle power including luring the voters with liquor.
“Our general observers and expenditure observers will keep an alert eye on money, muscle power and liquor during the state polls and they would check that any such things do not affect the elections,” said Qureshi. He mentioned that the Election Commission has specified all necessary guidelines and that it is monitoring the pre-polls process in the five states where polls are scheduled to take place. Read More »
Changing its earlier decision, the Election Commission has allowed the disbursement of relief funds, which it had earlier said had been deferred till the election process in Punjab, which goes to polls on January 30, was over. The Commission has further also allowed giving compensation to the farmers whose land was earlier acquired by the government. The EC conveyed that the same be disbursed only by the officers and not by any political leader.
Earlier, Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer, had said the Commission has deferred the disbursement of relief funds till the election process in the state is over. ”We have received a revised order in the evening only, as per which only the officers will be allowed to disburse the funds to the already identified beneficiaries,” Special Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab Usha R Sharma said. Read More »
With polling only eight days away, successful use of electronic voting machine (EVM) in the maiden Comilla City Corporation polls could be a major challenge for the Election Commission as many voters are still unfamiliar with the device. The EC, however, is confident that the much-talked-about machine will prove a success.
This is the first time the commission is going to use the EVM in the entire polling in any elections in the country. It will use 421 machines in as many booths in 65 polling centres. Besides, 65 more will be kept reserved on the polling day. Earlier the main opposition BNP decided not to back any candidate as the EC turned down its demands for army deployment and not using EVM. Read More »
The State Election Commission (SEC) has issued an order banning the use of animals by political parties during election campaigns. In a letter to all political parties, the SEC said donkeys, bulls, elephants and cows cannot be used for politics. Often donkey with blackened face are paraded on streets to highlight the failure of the government or portrayed as rivals.
“The political parties found misusing the animals to highlight any issues during the local bodies elections will be dealt firmly. The candidates have no business to inflict atrocities against animals to highlight the public cause. The politicians have been urged to show restrain in abusing each other taking animal names. Several instances of politicians calling each other donkeys or dogs have been brought to the election commission’s notice,” state election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan said on Friday. Read More »
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee will be challenging the verdict delivered by Punjab and Haryana high court granting voting rights to Sehajdhari Sikhs, in the Supreme Court.
A day after the Punjab and Haryana high court gave a verdict the SGPC and the SAD went into a huddle to discuss the issue. The matter will also come up for in depth discussion in core committee meeting of SAD scheduled for Thursday evening.
“The SGPC will not take it lying down,” said Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, senior SAD leader. The newly elected SGPC is also likely to appeal to the Sikh Gurdwara Commission not to issue orders of re-election but to challenge the matter in the Supreme Court. On the flip side, on Wednesday, a delegation of Sehajdhari Sikhs met Sikh Gurdwara Commission chief H S Brar, and handed him over a copy of the HC verdict quashing the notification denying voting rights to them. Read More »
The BJP has petitioned the Election Commission against the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), procured from Malkangiri district, in Umerkote by-election in Nabarangpur district. In a memorandum to the Election Commission, the BJP alleged that the election officer of Nabarangpur district has violated the election handbook for the contestants by not inviting them for the first-level checking.
The second objection of the party was that the district election officer has not intimated the name of the nodal officer appointed by him to the political parties in the fray. Read More »
Most of the political parties have opposed the plan of introducing an electronic voting system in the Maldives, Elections Commission said today. Commissioner Fuad Thaufeeq said the parties made their remarks at the meeting held yesterday with the visiting International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) delegation to discuss on establishing an electronic voting system for future elections.
“Some noted that it’s wise to continue how voting takes place in the Maldives now while we noticed that most of them still need more information about how the system works. For instance, Adhaalath Party admitted that going along the technological advancements is an option but said they needed more information about the system,” he said.
Even as the ambitious plan of introducing e-voting in the upcoming civic elections failed to take off, the BMC along with the State Election Commission now want to upload GIS maps on its election website to facilitate voting.
The plan is to acquire detailed GIS (geographic information system) maps of the 227 corporator wards, mark it with minute details on major and minor roads and mark every polling booth to help citizens. Read More »
The Election Commission of India Monday issued detailed guidelines for proxy voting by armed forces personnel in the elections. According to Kusumjit Singh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Punjab said that special provisions have been made in the law for facilitating registration of armed forces personnel and casting of votes by them.
By virtue of provisions under R P Act, 1950 a member of the Armed forces and his wife, if residing with him, can be registered as service voters in the last part of the electoral of the constituency in which his native place is located. Read More »
They may have had no powers to take note of and stop the alleged irregularities and partisan activities committed during the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) elections, but the Election Commission of India has definitely been alarmed by what happened during the gurdwara polls recently.
That’s why, in a major snub to the state government, chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi told the administrative heads – the deputy commissioners and the divisional commissioner – on Saturday at Ludhiana that they knew “what exactly happened in Punjab during the SGPC elections and you dare not repeat this again.” Read More »
The plan to introduce e-voting and increase voter participation in next year’s BMC elections is expected to be shelved due to delays and security fears.
E-voting was considered as an option to facilitate voting for the urban middle class and increase their share in the overall voting percentage that was a dismal 47 per cent in 2007. The BMC and the State Election Commission were to jointly develop a system of online voting for the elections due in February.
But the BMC’s election department has received more than 30 objections from individuals and organisations against the implementation of e-voting, citing security concerns. An official from the election department said the system is not robust and can lead to rigging. “The plan was announced in February this year, but authorities sat on it for many months. Now, there is hardly any time left now and the demo trial is yet to take place. We have inspected the existing system and have observed a number of potential security breaches,” he said. The estimated cost of implementing e-voting is Rs 35 crore. Read More »
The first phase of the civic polls for over 1.35 lakh local bodies in Tamil Nadu was on Monday marred by allegations of irregularities by opposition parties, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, against the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam as 28 per cent voters cast their votes by 11 a.m.
Besides complaints of names missing in voters’ list and glitches in Electronic Voting Machines, allegations of non-compliance of High Court order on video recording of the polling, lack of enough security and bogus voting were levelled by the DMK and other parties such as the Pattali Makkal Katchi. Read More »
Amid a campaign by Team Anna for polls reforms, the Election Commission has disfavoured any proposal to include the ‘Right to Reject’ or ‘Right to Recall’ clauses in election rules, saying they may not work in a large country like India.
Opposing the proposal to have a ‘Right to Recall’ as in many developed countries, Chief Election Commission S Y Quraishi has held that it will “destabilise” the country, especially in areas where “people already feel alienated”. Read More »
Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. S. Y. Quraishi visited Bhutan from 16th – 18th September 2011 at the invitation of his counterpart Dasho Kunzang Wangdi for strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two Election Commissions. He was accompanied by Akshay Rout, Director General.
The two Chief Election Commissioners signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a period of five years to facilitate exchange of knowledge and experience, information, material, expertise and technical knowhow, training of personnel and development of human resources in electoral matters and also for taking up joint initiatives and providing assistance to others. Read More »
Making voting hi-tech will make the entire democratic process of voting an unsafe venture, feels S Y Quraishi, Chief Election Commissioner of India. He said on Tuesday that India was not yet ready for bringing in technology into the voting system. The CEC spoke to TOI on the utility of the voter ID cards and put the onus on the citizen to step out and vote. Excerpts:
Is e-voting feasible for India? Technology is not an issue for implementing e-voting. But it is not feasible in India at this point of time. How do we know who is voting on whose behalf? It is not possible to provide security for every voter with a gunman behind him/her. Online voting is not good, though it looks simpler. Read More »
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