BENGALURU:
Postal ballots
can make or mar the fortunes of a candidate in a closely fought contest. For instance, in the 2017 assembly polls in
Gujarat
’s
Dhokla
constituency, Ashwin Rathod lost by 327 votes while the returning officer had rejected 429 postal ballots — the matter is now in court.
An analysis of postal votes cast in the past three
Lok Sabha
elections shows that a large number of postal ballots get rejected. In fact, the rejection rate has been increasing with every passing election.
In 2004, for example, of the 6 lakh postal votes cast, 95,455 or 16% were rejected while in 2009, 19.5% of the 11.5 lakh postal votes got rejected, which went up to 21.5% of the 5.6 lakh votes cast in 2014. In the three elections between 2004 and 2014, a total of 23.2 lakh postal votes were cast of which 4.4 lakh votes were rejected.
From signatures or dates of birth not matching, to electors not filling their addresses accurately, a variety of reasons have seen a fifth of all postal votes get rejected cumulatively in the past three elections.
Among the common mistakes made by officials are: Not marking the candidate of choice in the space provided; providing wrong address; writing slogans such as ‘
Bharat Mata
Ki Jai’, or their own names in the slot given to mark votes and so on.
Ironically, a large number of these votes are cast by people responsible for the smooth functioning of the overall elections apart from those in the armed forces.
“It is disappointing that so many votes get rejected despite many training sessions and clear instructions given in writing in local languages and English that they can read before casting the votes. We’ve taken additional care this time to organise better training,” an EC official deputed to take care of postal ballots, said.
EC officials say ignorance and irresponsible voting results in a lot of postal votes getting invalidated, and that efforts are being made to ensure that officials are trained properly for the 2019 elections—the first phase of voting is scheduled on April 11.
However, political scientist Muzaffar Assadi says the reasons found by EC aren’t serious enough to always reject such large number of votes. “What if there is a case like the one in Dhokla, Gujarat. This is of serious concern and the returning officers must follow all procedures correctly.”
Officials argue that ROs follow guidelines before rejecting such votes. “The voters are given three forms: First, the ballot where they need to cast their vote. Second, a form that needs to be filled with basic details and signed so that the RO can attest that the person claiming to be voting is the same as the one in the records, and three, a complete instructions form in the local language and English. If people do not read instructions carefully and cast invalid votes, the RO cannot accept it,” the official said.
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