Delhi Poll: Polling officers may cast votes

Polling officers may get to cast their votes wherever they are posted

Even as portable ballot remains a dream in the largest democracy in the world, the state election commission in Delhi is determined to ensure that the more than 98,000 poll officers on duty for the coming General Elections should be able to cast their ballot from wherever they are posted.

In the existing practice, lakhs of poll officers who help conduct the elections across the country cannot exercise their franchise because often they are posted far from where they are actually registered as voters. "In this way, a considerable amount of votes go waste," said Delhi chief electoral officer Satbir Silas Bedi.

She said that the poll and presiding officers were often left out of polling. The number would seem significant in the wake of more than 60 lakh officials being posted for the exercise of General Elections in the country.

"The people on poll duty help people in casting their votes but they themselves are left out. We are seriously working to rectify this anomaly," Bedi said.

"We will ensure that the officials can cast their polls either by postal ballot or at the place where they are posted," Bedi added.

Although many politicians are in favour of the concept of a portable ballot, in which a person could exercise his/her franchise from anywhere in the county, but they believe that it would take some more time to materialise.

MP Navin Jindal, in an interview to MiD DAY, had said that he has written to the Election Commission and to the Parliament in this regard. "In a democracy if we do not let somebody to exercise their right to vote because of the circumstances, it is a very serious lapse. When a person is travelling on that day need not be necessarily present there, so that even before the election they can vote," he had said.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh have also supported the concept but feel that it may take time to become a reality.