The Hindu Business Line : <I>Reshaping voters' list </I>

A recent visit to Haldia revealed how political parties can use the stringent measures taken by the election authorities to cleanse the voting system to further their interests. As far as this correspondent could gather, this is how the system works. Poll officials, diligently doing their work, do not hesitate to strike off the names of voters from the rolls if they find no one at the addresses provided in the records — on the premise that these voters, whose names and addresses figure in the rolls, do not in fact reside there. In case there is an error — say, a voter has gone to fetch his or her child from school at the time the officials arrive — the prescribed remedy is to fill Form 6 and submit it to the authorities, who will then initiate the procedure to include the voter's name once again.

In the normal course, nothing in all this can be faulted. After all, if and when the poll officials have made a mistake (for which they are not to blame technically) and if there is a settled procedure for redress , no one can, or should, complain.

However, the end-result of this process suggests that the rectification procedure outlined above is not as neutral in its political impact as one would like to believe. This is because not every voter whose name has been wrongfully deleted is willing to take the trouble of filling up Form 6 (in duplicate or triplicate) and submit it to the authorities concerned. The more politically committed among them will, of course, do so and also those who would like to avoid facing the wrath of hyper-active party members and volunteers representing well-organised political parties.

Summing up, one can say that a valid voters' list can be skewed somewhat towards parties with a committed voter base and a well-oiled organisation with the help of the rules laid down for deletion of names of voters from the list and getting them included once again, all of which is well above board!

Ranabir Ray Choudhury