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COMMENTS

The following is the experience of Sri N S Mukunda, none other than the President of Citizen's Action Forum, in his own words:

It is true that many persons did not care to verify whether their names were on the rolls or not. But in my case we had found that our names went missing from the Electoral Rolls during the Assembly Elections even though we had given the names when the enumerators had visited our apartment block. We then submitted Form 6 in the month of July 2008 and even after 6 visits to the office of the ARO it was not included. Thereafter we understood that our Form 6 was misplaced by BBMP office. So we resubmitted Form 6 again on 30th March 2009 and were informed by the ARO that our names have been included and were also given the serial nos as 1346, 1347, 1348 and 1349 in Part 1 of Assembly Constituency 171 (Padmanabhanagar). Acccordingly when we went for voting we found a strange thing. Our names were in the rolls which were with the political party representatives but were missing from the list that the polling officer had. The net result was that we could not vote.
    
I then contacted Mr. Raju in the Election Commission office (and whose number was provided by Dr Meenakshi) who was taken aback and was just unable to understand how such a thing could happen. I have taken xerox copies of all these lists and will be meeting the EC officers after 30th April.
     
I also would like to share the experience of the residents of our apartment block. We have 52 eligible voters whose names were on the rolls during the Assembly Elections. By some magic nearly 30 names are being shown in the present list as DELETED. This is more than 50%. And this was not an isolated case. On our street only, there were at least 50 more persons whose names were there in the list during the Assembly Polls and went missing this time.
     
This raises some fundamental questions about the way Democracy is functioning. Everyone is agreed that the basis of a functioning vibrant democracy is the right to vote which translates to the existence of an accurate and constantly updated Voters List. If this list itself is totally mismanaged not by intent or design but by systemic deficiencies then Democracy has no meaning. Today I read in the papers the statements given by many worthies saying that the voter especially the urban, educated middle class voter is apathetic and cynical and doesnt believe in exercising his franchise. But at least this time my experience has been that many many such voters have taken interst to get their names included but the system has not responded because of its built in deficiencies and unless and until civil society as a whole comes out with a workable plan which ensures the following, Democracy will lose its meaning.
     
1) An accurate constantly updated Voters List to be kept ready always without reference to any impending elections. The exisitng system just cannot cope with the requitrements and is so full of loopholes that it needs to be scrapped in toto and replaced with an alternative. This has to be decided after due discussions with all sections of society and citizenry. CAF can play a meaningful role in this and I request all members to offer their suggestions.
2) A proper method of controlling the Election expenditure icluding the feasibility of State funding
3) The suggestion of the winning candidate toget at least 50% + 1 vote of the total votes polled
4) The right to recall
5) Mandating internal democracy for all registered political parties
6) Building pressure on the political parties to propose clean candidates who are not criminals.
7) The need to scrap the practice of issuing whips
8) Need for PUBLIC Hearings before a law is tabled before the Assembly/Parliament
9) There can be many other ideas which can be suggested by our mebers so that they can become a part of the Agenda.

Muralidhar Rao

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Srinivas avare'

According to which electoral roles - the one in which Alex's, Mukunda's, etc names names were there, or the one in which they were not there?

Muralidhar Rao

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I will abstain describing my saga here.  In summary, it took me, an educated citizen, several visits to finally get my name on the rolla this election.  It was the wrong part number. My wife's date of birth was correct when we got the voter id card, but the voter list continued to list her only 22 years of age.  In short, this is a proper nightmare of unreliable information

How do we fix this problem, apply pressure etc., before the next election rolls around? Ideas?

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All 6 in my family have EPICs (recently updated, just before assembly polls - had our share of fun then). All of us managed to vote during the assembly as well as the Lok Sabha polls.

The Lok sabha poll was interesting. We looked up our names online, and noted our sections and serial numbers (Sl #s 674, 675...). Those matched with the sheets the guys outside polling booths had. Inside, the list with polling officers showed some other names. After a few minutes of scrambling and searching, we found our names at a different location (Sl #s 700 something), and in a different sort order. We all voted in the end, but does this explain the problems others had? Could this sorting be the problem?

In any case, there is no arguing - this whole voter's list process needs a revamp, and more improtantly, should be continuous.

Ravi

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Hello Sir,
  I do agree with what ever you said. But still more than half of the people on the electoral rolls did not vote. Is it not a cause of concern?

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