Several officials are well aware of my more than ten personal visits to Ward Office, Corporation Office and Voter Facilitation Centre (VFC) to get my name included in the voter list, and I can well imagine the problems faced by ordinary people who do not have personal transport or are not fully literate or have to leave their work, losing wages or earnings, to get their names included in the voter list.
Notwithstanding the efforts made by Sri P.Manivannan (District Election Officer and Deputy Commissioner) and officials working under him, there have been many complaints of being unable to vote in the media. Surely there will be many more about which we know nothing. Sri Manivannan's article on page 4 of SOM 03 May 2009 gives reasons for the problem, and calls for public cooperation. This letter may serve to cause citizens to exercise their minds before attending meetings that will hopefully be called by Mr.Manivannan.
Complaints regarding voting on 30 April are mainly of six types. Type 1, name not on the voter list even though appropriate forms were submitted in the recent pre-election drive. Type 2, name which was earlier on the voter list was deleted. Type 3, EPIC issued but name not on voter list. Type 4, name shifted to another part of voter list, unknown to the voter. Type 5, name on voter list but EPIC not issued. Type 6, errors in details in voter list and/or EPIC.
Due to problems in Types 1, 2, 3 and 4, citizens would have been unable to vote. Therefore these call for careful and immediate action to rectify the omissions and errors to prevent recurrence in a forthcoming election. Waiting for the next election to be announced and then officials indulging in a flurry of high-pressure, error-prone facilitation activity to update Voter Lists will only cause repetition of these serious, unacceptable errors.
I have observed the problems at the Voter Facilitation Centre (VFC) due to the interaction of citizens standing for hours in the hot sun in long queues, with hard-pressed, harried officials. This combination only makes for rising tempers and much shouting, without much real facilitation getting done. People may be apathetic in non-election times, but now is the time immediately following the election, to update the list by making public announcements to call all people who could not vote.
One Type 2 case (name missing from the list though it was there previously) that was brought to my notice on 30 April morning turned out to actually be a Type 4 case (name shifted to some other part, unknown to him), and the citizen did finally cast his vote. This was because the updated voter list was not available on internet. For Type 3 problem (having a EPIC card but name missing), the EPIC card holder should be permitted to vote in any booth within the constituency marked on the EPIC, by the Polling Booth Officer making entry from EPIC details in an appropriate Form (Form 17A?). However, this may require permission from the Election Commission.
Type 6 is also serious because voters have been “created” at fictitious addresses. For example, at a particular address known to me (Door No.472 of a certain locality) where only three voters live, the addresses appearing in the voter list were 472/1, 472/2, 472/3, etc., and there were 35 names listed, none of whom were known to citizens in the area. Thus, even though the named persons may actually exist but not know where their names are listed, these are effectively fictitious names at these non-existent addresses, giving scope for unscrupulous elements to use these votes for their party's advantage. This may also show a false voter turnout figure.
The bottom line is that the system (of voter list updation) needs revamping. There are continual changes in voters in every constituency due to people moving out or moving in, by death and by crossing the age of eighteen. Therefore, updating voter lists should not be only a pre-election activity but a continuous, on-going activity. It should not require more than one official working full-time in each Zone to maintain voter lists updated on a monthly basis, and changes (additions/deletions) put up on Notice Boards for public information. This also facilitates accountability for errors and omissions, something that is impossible at present. The Voter List in full should be placed on the internet, updated every month with inputs from Zone Offices, all transactions performed electronically. A suitable procedure for issue of EPIC on one day of every month needs to be linked with this. Prior to the current election, the voter list available on internet was updated only upto February 2009 and concerned officials failed to upload the list updated as on the last date for changes, even though requested.
The above suggestions are certainly not fool-proof, but they should serve as a starting point for wider discussion, to revamp the system so that all citizens are able to exercise their constitutional right to vote.