The Hindu : New ink-marking method to prevent bogus voting

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 20, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Cuddalore

New ink-marking method to prevent bogus voting

By Our Special Correspondent

CUDDALORE, FEB. 19. In the Lok Sabha elections, indelible ink marking will be made differently: i.e. instead of putting a single dot on the middle of the left index finger nail, the markings will be done on either side of the nail, or two dots will be put.

This will make wiping the marking difficult and prevent bogus voting, said Gagandeep Singh Bedi, District Collector, at an all-party meeting here today.

``Proxy voting''

The Collector said the "classified service voters" — those in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force — would be permitted to cast "proxy votes." The Service personnel, who had hitherto been entitled to postal votes, could authorise their colleagues to poll the "proxy votes" on their behalf.

However, spouses would not enjoy the privilege. Those who opted for proxy votes should submit Form 13 F with their signatures attested by a notary or a first class magistrate. The sub-list of the proxy voters, along with the electoral rolls, should be made available to the respective police stations.

The Collector said the proxy voters could cast two votes (theirs and that of their colleagues who would opt for the system), and as such the indelible ink markings would be made on their index as well as middle fingers.

Another change that would come into force would be the mandatory filing of the affidavits by the candidates at the time of nominations, giving the details of the movable and immovable property owned by them and the criminal antecedents, if any.

Voting machines

The Collector said electronic voting machines (EVMs) would be deployed in all the constituencies, and the district had a total number of 3,000 EVMs, against the requirement of 1,500.

Mr. Bedi said there were 17,06,786 voters in the district, of whom 10,68,468 had obtained the photo identity cards. Depending upon the directions of the Election Commission, efforts would be made to issue the cards for the rest of the voters.

Mr. Bedi said the election expenditure for each candidate had been fixed at Rs. 25 lakhs. This included the expenditure incurred by the alliance parties and the local bodes towards erasing the propaganda materials on public property. The supplementary electoral rolls, including addition and deletion, would be published on February 25.

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