ECI: Ensuring a thriving democracy

India is rightly referred as the largest democracy in the world based on the numeric data pertaining to record number of eligible electorate. The staggering number of voters, who were eligible to cast their vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was a record high of 968 million out of 1.4 billion people, equivalent to 70% of the total population. 642 million voters participated in the election, 312 million of these were women, the highest ever participation by women voters. Maintaining the profile of every electorate irrespective of the place of living is the responsibility of Election Commission of India at the highest level and is equally aided by Chief Electoral officer at the state/UT level and District Electoral Officer at the District level. This is executed in a highly professional manner at all the levels to ensure that every eligible individual is in the ambit of Universal Adult Suffrage to exercise his right to vote when he attains the age of 18 years. No eligible voter is therefore left out to participate in electoral democracy. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) appointed in every booth are entrusted with the responsibility to do periodic revisions to update the voter lists by inclusion of new eligible voter entrants , deletion of voters who have died or are married to some other place.

Novel interventions of Election Commission to maximise voter participation in elections

(1)    Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP): The Election Commission of India has outlined detailed awareness initiatives to mobilize general public to register themselves as eligible voters after attaining the age of 18 years and sensitise the masses to ensure greater participation for stronger democracy. These interventions are executed under the banner of SVEEP. The district nodal officer for SVEEP looks after the activities organized at the district level by involving varied stakeholders be it schools, colleges, BLOs and civil societies.

(2)    Digital interventions by ECI for smooth voter facilitation: The ECI has made immense strides to ensure entire election process is transparent and the election related information is accessible to everyone at his finger tips. This was rendered possible by making use of varied technological tools. The ECI and State /UT level election offices have dedicated digital interfaces wherein general public can access to any kind of information related to election exercise. The incorporation of digital tools has simplified the election process from the voter’s prospective as there are dedicated portals which can be accessed by voters at any point of time. For example there is voter registration portal which can be accessed by the user to get himself registered as the voter, by uploading the requisite documents and therefore necessarily there is no need to visit any registration office in person, thus rendering the entire process of voter registration smooth and hassle free. Likewise a registered voter by uploading basic information can virtually confirm his polling station well in time, where he is scheduled to cast his ballot on the day of voting. In fact the entire communication details of concerned BLO is available online and is just a click away. The BLOs who are assigned the job of periodic revisions of the electoral rolls previously had tough time to manually punch the data on hard copies and therefore was a time consuming exercise. The integration of technological tools in the election exercise has infused integrity and transparency and same holds true for BLOs as well, who are now operating dedicated special software applications on their android phones to instantly enter the data electronically .These applications are real location based and BLOs have to mandatorily visit door to door to fetch and punch the accurate data within the premises of the household to be surveyed, thus ruling out the possibility of fictitious data being fed into the app.

(3)    Establishment of Unique polling stations: To ensure that no eligible voter is left behind and thereby ensure accessibility in otherwise non-penetrative areas of Jammu and Kashmir, the election Commission of India has set up three floating polling stations on the Dal Lake and one along the Line Of Control (LoC) to exclusively cater an area that has a 100% ST population. The Koragbal polling station in the Gurez assembly constituency is situated along the line of control. The polling team to floating polling stations was dispatched via ferries and Shikaras. One of the three floating polling stations, Khar Mohalla Aabi Karpora, has only three voters. To infuse a degree of inclusivity, in fact a polling station has been set up in Seemari village of Karnah tehsil, the last village of the northern frontier of Kupwara. Pink booths too have been established which will be solely manned by female polling staff to ensure female voters in record numbers. The Election Commission of India has even designated some polling stations as PwD (Persons with disabilities) polling stations which will be entirely managed by specially abled persons. One polling station in every AC is supposed to be manned by Persons with Disabilities and another exclusively by female staff.

(4)    Special arrangements for Kashmiri migrant voters : Kashmiri migrant voters are also equally empowered to exercise their franchise through 24 special polling stations setup in Jammu (19), Udhampur (1) and Delhi (4). The Election Commission of India for smooth and hassle free voting had eased the process for Kashmiri migrant voters by doing away with the cumbersome form–M and enabling self-certification. This inclusive approach on part of the Election Commission of India is to legitimize the franchise right of every voter irrespective of the geographical coordinates or his place of living.

(5)    Home–based voting facility: Home-based voting facility was for the first time introduced in the assembly elections in J&K. The ultimate purpose to introduce home-based voting facility is to experience and visualize democracy being taken to the door steps of those who are bound by physical limitations. Many voters aged above 85 years and PwDs with 40% benchmark disability have been given an option to cast their vote from the comfort of their homes. The entire voting process in such a scenario is to be videographed while maintaining the secrecy of the ballot.

(6)          Transparency and sanctity of voting process: The voter has the absolute authority to exercise his franchise right and it is his sole discretion to whom he wants to elect as a public representative. The Election Commission of India being impartial ensures that the voter does not succumb to the external pressure and exercises his voting right in a level playing field. Inside the voting hall, the arrangements are such that only a voter knows for whom he has casted his vote. Strong security measures are put in place to create a conducive environment for voters to caste their vote without fear or intimidation. Webcasting has been ensured in every polling station to ensure greater transparency of the voting process. To infuse degree of trust in the mind of the voter to verify if the vote he cast is polled in favour of the candidate of his choice, the Election Commission of India has now made it mandatory in every election to incorporate VVPAT (Verified Voter Paper Audit Trail) along with ballot unit. The VVPAT displays a slip for seven seconds of the contesting candidate in whose favour the vote has been polled by the voter. This addition in the recent times is regarded as a much needed intervention which has raised the bar of public expectation visa-vis execution of transparent election process on the part of ECI.

Dr. Mushtaq Rather is an educator