Election duty

ELECTION DUTY Dr. S. S. Verma Department of Physics, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal, Distt.-Sangrur (Punjab)-148 106, INDIA Free and fare elections are the back bone of a democracy in a real sense and give a chance to the voters to exercise their franchise to vote for a leader of their choice. People at every place and level in India are getting politically well aware may be due to “Jago India” campaign or political awareness or rampant corruption.

It may be a parliamentary, assembly, municipality or panchayat election and people are turning up in very good numbers to cast their votes. Let us hope that such a people’s faith in electoral process may not be the signals of their last efforts before they turn up to other non-desired modes of selection for their leaders. Every event of election involves massive coordination and thousands of people involve conducting it in a so called fare and free manner. For the candidates election is a prestige issue where as for voters it a chance to select the leader and for both of them the election process might seem as a smooth enough job but for those who conduct it the job is nothing less than a daylight nightmare.

The ones who are responsible for its smooth (or not) conduct are the government employees. Government employees put on election duty can also be bifurcated into two categories i) beaurocrates who enjoy powers and facilities bestowed on them by the election commission of India and ii) employees who act as real workers without powers and facilities. It is not a point of discussion as which category of employees generally comes under category second as teachers are the most preferred ones. When the category second people get the letters for their election duty, their services come directly under the District Election Officer/Returning officers-Deputy Commissioners of the districts.

District Election Officers/Returning officers then issue letters of election duty in pursuance of sub-section (i) and sub-section (3) of section 26 of Representation of the People’ Act 1951 with instructions that: i) Failure to report for ANY DUTY given would attract cognizable penal provisions u/s 134 of RPI Act 1951 & immediate FIR will be registered against the defaulters. ii) Failure to attend any rehearsal or any dereliction of duty would attract strict legal action.

Under the above said clauses it is always presumed and said that election duty is a compulsory duty and has to be performed by every employee of Govt. of India (central or state). Though there may be other many supporting clauses about election duty but it is all left to the intelligence and sincerity of DEOs to implement them for the benefit of the people and country without any prejudices. Important is that how seriously and sincerely DEOs take their duties or just assign such duties to clerical staff to manipulate things at their own level.

Election duty is a job (or responsibility) that most government staffers are reluctant to perform. It is so because election duty is mentally and physically stressful not to mention risky. The ordinary voter does not know and people who manage the process are not bothered to know how difficult it is for the people who conduct the election. There are a million things that need to be done if every thing has to go right. To make election duty a some what better choice for the employees so that very few of them try to shun these duties and elections of any category can be held in a peaceful manner, efforts can be made to steam line the election duty process.

Appointment of polling staff Once you are put on election duty it is next to impossible to dodge it (as police will come very soon to you as they are left for that purpose only) unless you have the ability to manipulate things through proper contact. Exemption to selected employees for reasons best known to officers only irks the people on duty more. Hence, people without taking into consideration their connections should be put on election duty except genuine cases and there should be enough transparency in the process. Genuineness of the request to cancel the election duty has to be verified giving due weightage to a life which is more important than the election duty. The special cases like medical, couple, widows, ladies, unmarried girls etc. as mentioned in ECI guidelines should be exempted.

Rehearsals If we have to perform the election duty then first it comes to rehearsals. These are generally two-three meetings with officials and polling staff to acquaint oneself with officials, machines & men. These are really poorly managed events as no proper arrangement of sound, medium of instruction, refreshments and transportation. The marking of attendance and distribution of instructional materials to polling staff is poorly managed by the ROs/AROs supprting staff along with their rude behaviour. We never see RO during the election process and AROs are not ready to listen to the grievances of polling staff.

Transportation Proper transportation should be provided for rehearsals, on the day of polling and after polling to reach home. Improvements are there as in Punjab all the polling parties are taken and brought back in buses from polling stations which is much better than transporting in trucks with metal ballot boxes and over that front seats already occupied by police people.

Violence All efforts to conduct peaceful fare and free poll can go any time haywire as political competition among undeserving candidates controlled by criminal background can take advantage of voters to create violence for which the ultimate risk factor lies with polling parties. Some polling stations are supersensitive in terms of political linkages of people and polling staff sometimes become a prey to such

politics. “Three people, including two poll officials, were killed and two paramilitary troopers injured Thursday when landmines, planted by suspected Maoist guerrillas to disrupt elections, went off in West Bengal’s Maoist-hit districts�. Hence, polling party people should be provided with handsome life risk monetarily benefits and security.

Collection of materials Collection of material by the polling parties from the election control venue takes place on the day before the election day. Parties are generally called in the morning by 8-9am and they do come from far away distances but the management staffs start their proceedings of issuing the election material generally late, thus causing chaotic scenes at the collection counters. Though, it can be properly managed with cooperation from both sides (polling staff and management staff). Good and efficient people who are well versed with the process through proper training and guidelines can be deputed for managing the distribution of polling materials. Moreover, the polling material must be checked 2-3 times before as per the list. Many things are found either missing or in not good condition or in short supply which makes things worst during the return of these items at the end of poll. It takes 1-2 hours for the polling parties to check everything they are given right down to a sheet of pins. If some discrepancies are noticed then the management staff either not listens to the complaints or generally says it will be met later on by supervisory staff at the polling station itself. This all process goes without any arrangement for food from management side. When all the polling parties are complete and have collected the polling material (it will be almost after noon by then), they are clubbed in groups of same route and are dispatched along with security to respective polling stations.

Polling station Late in the evening polling parties reach at the polling stations which are generally located in government school buildings so poor facilities for toilets, bathroom and sleeping. Preliminary preparation responsibilities of Polling station are though assigned to area labour officers but it is generally found after reaching at polling stations that the preparations are nil and therefore, arrangements at polling stations need further improvements. Thus, polling staff has to got down to work sorting out the material, sticking the mandatory notices, arranging the furniture. Presiding officer has the responsibility to fill up a number of forms and submit after the voting is over as per the desire of people at the collection centre. Every other polling party member has an option to leave the station except the Presiding Officer who is solely responsible for the safety of the material. Though, it should be the responsibility of all polling party members. If there are females in the party then there are no more alternatives than to allow them to leave the place. Precautions about mosquitoes etc. have to be taken on our own. Thanks to the generosity of Indian people of any area that they generally provide water and food as per their capacity to polling people on duty.

On Election Day Formalities like mock poll, declaration, sealing of voting machines etc. have to be completed before the start of voting in presence of polling agents who do not arrive at poling station with in time where as voters start coming for voting by that time. The EVMs are a novelty but most of the voters still do not know how to operate it. There is a need for awareness in masses about the authenticity and working/operating of EVM’s.

Election day is a day when we need cooperation from all quarters of society, police, voters, agents, candidates, officers, observers, micro-observers and supervisors. Processes of voter identification, allowing companions to ills, blind and disabled voters and challenged votes need patience and cooperation at every level. People should not question the integrity of any polling party official without proper investigations as far as they are just doing their duty in an impartial manner. Any information related to polling statistics required by polling agents and polling officials from polling party can only be provided if election is held in a peaceful manner.

Electronic Voting machines (EVM’s) Though EVM’s have made polling process very convenient for polling staff as well as for literate voters but they still need improvements. The problems faced with EVM’s can be summarized as:  Taking into consideration the slow response (may have its advantages) of EVM’s, number of electors assigned at one polling station should not exceed six-seven hundred for a polling time of ten hours. 

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Voters still keep on waiting for some mechanical response (as were habitual of putting voter slip into the box) about the casting of their votes. Some modifications must be done to indicate the voter through some signal which is more impressive to indicate the casting of vote.

Voters confuse with the pressing blue button with arrow and symbol of candidates for pressing.

Symbols of candidates (if more) takes time for the voter to recognize which becomes more time taking due to poor printing, low visibility, poor lighting & poor eye-sight.

Interactive voting machines are the need of future

Sealing At the end of poll, every body thanks his stars for the polling to have been conducted smoothly. Then, next two-three hours are given to sealing the machines, filling up the forms, getting signatures of polling agents and other details. People of the area managing the show with two day pleasant memories of interaction and service some times say good bye to meet soon. But, let us hope that each election last its full term and next time it come with some fruitful improvements in the process of election duty so that people should not be afraid to perform it.

Handing over the election material It is always the same chaotic scene with everyone rushing to hand over the election material as first and go home. Again the process can be made easy by having patience at the part of polling staff and proper cooperation between polling staff and management staff. More collection counters i.e., counters for less number of polling parties can be arranged with already supplying proper details for preparation and handing over the election material in desired format (sealed or unsealed). It is better late than facing any problem at later stage. As handing over the material is again the sole responsibility of the presiding officer only but other polling party members should also equally stand with him which in general takes place but it can be made more effective by not handing over the honorarium to the polling staff before handing over the material by them so that every member of the polling party has to stay up to the end of the election duty process.

In the last, though election duty is a mandatory duty for every employee of India, but it can be made more attractive by giving good amount of honorarium, life risk cover to polling staff, good transportation facilities, refreshments and with full support and cooperation from polling officials not only during the election process but also in later case if the employee is dragged in to some undesired controversy by the people arising out of his election duty process.