ElectionWatch
Sept 30: cut-off day for voters

nearly 300 members of citizen organisations last sunday got a jolt. they had been busy with electionwatch before the next municipal elections, a prime part of which is additions/deletions in the electoral rolls. they were informed that the cut-off date for new voter registration for the february 2002 elections would be september 30, 2001. that leaves us some 25 working days, citizens.the meeting was organised by agni (action for good governance and networking for india) at don bosco high school, matunga. asked whether it was aware of the cut-off date before that moment, the gathering replied with a unanimous and full throated "no!" the most likely to be affected are young people just turned 18. others aggrieved may be new arrivals in the city and people who have moved residence. life and death elections the city's municipal corporation is literally a life and death matter. it gives us a birth certificate and registers our departure from this life of encroached streets and uncollected garbage. the bmc has 221 corporators who decide the institution's destinies and are put there by us, the city's 7.5 million voters. our next chance to get the "good guys in and the bad guys out" is in february 2002. maze on the dais to return to sunday's agni meeting, citizens confronted the intricacies of this matter. the dais depicted the maze, you might say. the state's chief electoral officer, among other matters, is in charge of the electoral rolls. the state election commission, represented by its secretary, decides matters to do with local government and panchayat elections. an additional municipal commissioner (amc) is responsible for the number of mumbai's civic constituencies and their limits, reservations and for fair and orderly civic elections. poor voter turn-out just about a month is left for new names and double-checking listed ones. but the real challenge is getting those already registered to vote. the turn-out was just 45 per cent in the 1997 civic poll, in places as low as 30 per cent. gautam chatterjee, the concerned amc, astounded the gathering by reporting that in a recent by-election in "d" ward (the "posh" area that covers malabar hill, cumballa hill, gamdevi and tardeo) the turn-out was just 14 per cent of those on the rolls. on voting day, some 90 per cent of slum dwellers turn out at the booths, against 25 per cent to 35 per cent of the upper income population. this gives the so-called vote banks their clout. they make up the majority of voters. it is natural that their interests would be championed by the elected. the trouble is that these politicos vociferously talk "slum welfare" and "rehabilitation," but fail to deliver. the privileged don't care it is ironic that those in whom society has made the most investment, care the least, and vice versa. for our elected representatives to take the needs and welfare of the middle classes - lower, middle and upper - into account, it is vital that these elements of society assert themselves at the polls. at the moment, they do not. worse, they do not bother even to check the rolls or enlist themselves. every vote counts a study of seats won by less than 1000 votes in the last civic elections shows that such seats numbered nearly 1/3rd of the total. further, the winning margins in a few notable constituencies were (each electorate never less than 25,000 voters): let's make this a democracy, citizens! for more information on where to enroll and how, call agni at tel 3611327 and telefax 3622492.