Citizen’s view on General Elections 2009

Hmmm… Long time no c.. I know that’s what you are asking to me and to my blog !!!
Well finally after 1 year here we go…..

Its general elections time and the whole country is waiting for the results on May 16. The entire election process was completed in 5 phases successfully. Elections in Tamilnadu were held on May 13 and of course I am also one of the many proud citizens who have exercised their franchise on that day.

It’s a well known fact that all politicians should improve, all political parties should also improve. The discussion in this blog is only about the process of general elections and not about the corrupted politicians and political parties. It would definitely take a bigger post if I had to write about them.

Although there are lots of good things to note about the general elections, I found that there are lots of other things which have to be improved !!!
Here are a few things to ponder upon…
1) Actually this time it was special as this was the first time I am casting my vote. It all started in 2004 lok sabha elections when my name was not found in the voters list. Then again in 2006 state assembly elections, I went to vote at around 4 PM and by that time my vote had already been registered by some one else. So this time I had to make sure that I was there in the polling booth early in the morning !!!!

Impersonation is one of the major problem which many would have experienced. There should be extra verification mechanisms such as signature verification or thumb impression verification of each and every voter apart from the voter identity card. This would by and large remove impersonation.
The database should be improved in such a manner that there are no duplicate insertions in the list of voters.

2) There should be a provision to reject all the candidates in an election if the voter finds them not suitable. Of course, there is rule 49 ‘O’ which provides an option for voter to refuse to vote after he has been identified and recorded in the register of electors. But where is the secrecy of vote in this case?? The polling officials and the polling agents would get to know about the decision of such a voter.
The election commission has to amend its rules so that there is an option like ‘None of the above’ or ‘No vote’ in the electronic voting machine itself so that the person who doesn’t want to vote for anyone can of course do so without anyone knowing about it.

3) Next is how user friendly is our elections? It was heartening to know that this election was the most disabled friendly election so far.
Read this…… http://www.thehindu.com/2009/05/10/stories/2009051059300700.htm
But  still there are lots of other things to be improved. I was standing in a queue for 1.5 hours to cast my vote in a completely enclosed room with no proper ventilation. Many of the people who came to vote went back mainly because of this. One person who was standing behind me in the queue was about to faint due to lack of oxygen !!!!

There were three separate queues for men but there was only one queue for women in my polling booth. Although many of the women voters braved the hot sun and stood in the queue for 2 hours to cast their vote but a few of them went back seeing the queue size.
I think we should also spend some time to give thoughts on how to improve aesthetics in a polling station. This probably should be done by the election officer in charge for the polling station.

4) Next is the voter turnout. Main reason for many of them not voting is that they are staying far away from their home town. I know many of my office friends who actually took leave and went to their native place to vote in the general elections. If this is absolutely not possible (it must be possible in most of the cases!!!!), you can very well cast your votes through post. Read this …. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/cover/%E2%80%98postal-voting-works,-needs-advance-planning%E2%80%99-967
This also in many ways would avoid having lower voter turnout (less than 50% for a constituency)
There should be amendments in the law so that, if a candidate gets less than 40% of the total votes polled (Already voter turnout would have been 40% or so.. and 40 out of 40% is only around 16% of the total eligible voters), then there should be a re-election as a person getting the support of just 16% of the total voters should never be allowed to represent the constituency !!!!
Of course, if the number of votes cast through 49 ‘O’ is more than that received by the winning candidate, there should definitely be re-election with new sets of more eligible candidates.

5) You would have heard about deletion of names in few constituencies etc. All I want to say about this is it is the duty of an individual person to check before the elections if his/her name is in the voter list. They have also published the voter list online. So it must be double easy for anyone to verify that.

And finally for all of them, who stayed in their home town, having their name in the electoral rolls with valid identity proof and not voting because of laziness, Please vote next time!!!! It is your duty!!!