Indian Elections - De-mystified (Part II)

by Gaurang Damani

Voter basicsContrary to popular belief, you are not automatically enrolled as a voter. To enroll as a new voter, please fill up form 6 and form 1A, at the Election Commission of India (ECI) center in your area, with *ATTESTED* photocopy of:

• Residence proof (ration card or electric bill or bank pass book or passport)
• Age proof (Birth certificate or school leaving certificate)
• Old voting slip of family or neighbour, so that they may enter your details easily.
• Please also carry your passport size photograph to attach with form 1A
• Please don’t forget to collect the acknowledgement receipt.

If you already have a Voter’s photo ID card and it requires no change, then nothing is to be done. Existing Voters: if you need to add your photograph to voter’s list:

• Attach photographs to Form 1B
• Carry old voters ID or slip.

To download forms, please go to: http://www.diehardindian.com/ngo/kypforms.htm

Duty of the voter

Main duty of the voter, is to find your name in the voter’s list, before the voting day. This may be done at the local ECI office OR local BJP party office OR online at:

www.ceo.maharashtra.gov.in

If your name is not found in the voter’s list (and you have filled up Form 6); please check a few buildings next to yours (before and after your building entry in the voter’s list). Atleast 10% of the times, there are errors in the list, where your name may appear in some other section of your booth.

On the voting day, the voter must carry the election Photo ID. If that’s not available, then the voting slip (as delivered by any political party) with any government photo ID will do.

Important statistics

Each Lok sabha (MP) seat in India, geographically covers six Vidhan sabha (MLA) seats. Each MLA seat geographically covers six municipal corporation (Councilor) wards, in a city like Mumbai. After the de-limitation exercise carried out by ECI, each ward has roughly 40,000 voters and hence each MLA area has about 240,000 voters AND each MP area has roughly 15 lakh voters.

Each booth (voting area) covers about a 1,000 voters of its surrounding area. So a MP candidate has to cover about 1,500 booths (and hence have 1,500 booth pramukhs and atleast 1,500 polling agents and their relievers, for effective coverage).

One polling station (eg a government school) may physically contain 2-3 or more booths. Each booth has a unique number called EP number. So a voter can be uniquely identified as, South Mumbai Lok sabha constituency, Malabar Hill vidhan sabha, EP number x (booth number 1 to say 240), serial number y (voter number 1 to say 1,000).

Reservations

Certain areas have a lot of SC or ST or NT population, hence ECI nominates those areas as reserved. For eg, Dharavi vidhan sabha is reserved for SC and Palghar Lok sabha seat is reserved for ST.

In municipal corporation elections (for Mumbai) 33% is reserved for women, 33% for OBC and about 2-3% for SC/ST. Rest is available for open category candidates. The reservation for OBC and women is chosen by a lottery system, every 2 electoral terms.

Election Code of conduct

• Campaign period starts from 9 am till 10 pm only (with a 3 hour break in the afternoon). Campaigning from a day and half before voting day is not allowed. Plus on voting day, no tables can be set up within 100 meters from the polling station.
• Permissions are required from the police/ traffic police and local government for the campaigning.
• If banners are to be put up in private buildings, then society or landlord permission is required.
• There is a limit for spending per candidate (depending on type of election).
• Its illegal to distribute money or make promises, once election is declared.
• Its illegal to ask for votes on basis of religion or caste.
• Candidate must use maximum vehicles, only as specified by the ECI
• Candidate can not open more campaign offices, than specified by ECI.
• Candidate can criticize opponents track record (not private life)

What is bogus voting?

If a person has moved from his/ her residence, it’s the duty of the voter to inform the ECI, by filling out Form 7. In case of a death, the voters relatives should inform the ECI.

If the name is NOT deleted from the voter’s list, then another person may assume this person’s identity and vote on his/her behalf. This is Bogus voting. It is a crime to do so, but this practice is still prevalent. This can be checked by having a sharp polling agent inside the booth, who can ask for the identity of the voter.

Has Booth capturing virtually stopped?

Earlier ECI used to print ballot papers. Voters would select their choice and insert it in the ballot box. In sensitive booths, armed bandits would seize the booth and vote. But ECI has become more active in patrolling such booths AND since the advent of the EVM (Electronic Voting machine), this has reduced a lot. ECI can order re-polling in a particular booth, if it suspects foul play. These also are reasons, why people like Lalu Prasad Yadav may have lost the last Bihar elections. However CPI (M) and West Bengal may be another story!

Counting

The EVM’s are stored under strict government supervision till the counting day. Chief counting Agent of each candidate leads a team of counting agents to witness EVM’s being opened, after the seal is checked to be intact. For eg a vidhan sabha counting may have 12 counting agents, inside the counting room.

Other stuff

• If a party gets 6% vote share in a general election, then it can be allocated a permanent symbol.
• Once a candidate is elected through a political party, he/ she cannot join any other party mid-stream. They have to quit the party and then re-contest the election.
• A party may decide to change alliances mid-stream. Also, if 2/3^rd of a party’s elected representatives chose to split the party and change alliances, this also may work.
• A candidate cannot be an MP and a MLA at the same time. But can be an MLA and a ward Councilor simultaneously.

If there are any further questions, please drop a line to ‘Friends of BJP’ and we will be glad to compile an FAQ.

(To know more about Gaurang, visit his website at http://diehardindian.com.)

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