The soldiers of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were the first to cast their vote for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Arunachal Pradesh as Service Voters.
Service voter belonging to defence and paramilitary forces have the option of either voting through postal ballot or through a proxy voter duly appointed by him/her. There are roughly 30 lakh service voters including defence and paramilitary forces who (in many cases with families at family stations) will cast their votes through service voter facility.
Who is a service voter?
Service voter is a voter having service qualification. According to the provisions of sub – section (8) of Section 20 of Representation of People Act, 1950, service qualification means:
- Being a member of the armed Forces of the Union ; or
- Being a member of a force to which provisions of the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950), have been made applicable whether with or without modification;
- Being a member of an Armed Police Force of a State, and serving outside that state; or
- Being a person who is employed under the Government of India, in a post outside India.
How is a service voter different from an ordinary elector?
While an ordinary elector is registered in the electoral roll of the constituency in which his place of ordinary residence is located, person having service qualification can get enrolled as ‘service voter’ at his native place even though he actually may be residing at a different place (of posting). He has, however, an option to get himself enrolled as general elector at the place of his posting where he factually, at the point of time, is residing ordinarily with his family for a sufficient span of time.
Are members of all Armed Forces / Para Military Forces eligible to be enrolled as service voters?
As per the existing arrangements, members of Indian Army, Navy and Air Force and personnel of General Reserve Engineer Force (Border Road Organization), Border Security Force, Indo Tibetan Border Police, Assam Rifles, National Security Guards, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force and Sashastra Seema Bal are eligible to be registered as service voters.
Is wife or son/daughter of a service voter also enrolled as a service voter?
The wife of a service voter shall, if she is ordinarily residing with him, be also deemed to be a service voter in the constituency specified by that person. The service voter has to make a statement to the effect in the relevant Form 2/2A/3 that his wife ordinarily resides with him. The wife will be enrolled as a service voter on the basis of declaration made by her husband in the application form itself submitted by him and no separate declaration / application is required to be made by the wife. A son/daughter/relative/servant etc. residing ordinarily with a service voter cannot be enrolled as service voter.
Is facility of enrollment as a service voter available to the husband of a female service voter?
Under the existing law, this facility is available only to the wife of a male service voter and is not available to the husband of a female service voter.
Can one be enrolled simultaneously as a service voter at his native place as well as a general voter at the place of posting?
No. A person, at a particular time, cannot be enrolled as a voter at more than one place in view of the provisions contained under Sections 17 and 18 of Representation of People Act, 1950. Likewise, no person can be enrolled as an elector more than once in any electoral roll.
Who is a Classified Service Voter?
Service voter belonging to Armed Forces or forces to which provisions of Army Act, 1950 are applicable, has option of either voting through postal ballot or through a proxy voter duly appointed by him. A service voter who opts for voting through a proxy is called Classified Service Voter (CSV).
Who is a ‘proxy’?
A service voter may appoint (by applying to Returning Officer in Form 13 F of Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 – Form available at the website of Election Commission) any person as his / her proxy to give vote on his / her behalf and in his / her name at the polling station. The proxy shall have to be ordinary resident of that constituency. He need not be a registered voter but he / she must not be disqualified to be registered as a voter. The provision for voting through proxy is valid till the person making the appointment is a service voter.
6-Feb-2019: 100% use of VVPAT for Lok Sabha polls
The Election Commission informed the Madras High Court that it had made it clear way back in 2017 that there shall be 100% use of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system during the Lok Sabha election this year to gain voter confidence.
VVPAT allowed every voter to see a printed slip for seven seconds to verify and confirm that the vote cast had gone to the candidate of his or her choice. The system would be used fully during the Lok Sabha election.
The submission was made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition seeking 100% use of the VVPAT during every election. The judges dismissed the petition after recording the submissions of the EC that it had already decided to use VVPAT in all booths in accordance with a 2013 Supreme Court directive.
29-Sep-2017: Gujarat to be the second state after Goa to use EVMs with VVPAT.
Gujarat will become first big state to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in coming Assembly elections. VVPATs will ensure that elections are more transparent.
Gujarat will be second state after Goa to use VVPAT system for the Assembly elections. The VVPATs will cover all 50,128 polling booths during 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections. As many as 70,182 VVPAT machines will be used during election elections. Earlier, VVPATs were used on pilot basis in limited polling booths of state in 2012 elections.
20-Apr-2017: Union Cabinet clears Election Commission’s proposal to buy VVPAT machines.
The Union Cabinet has cleared the Election Commission’s proposal to buy new Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. The machines are expected to be used in the 2019 General Elections. The Union Cabinet has permitted the Election Commission (EC) to procure 16,15,000 units, at an estimated base price of Rs. 3,173.47 crore. So far, EC has sent at least 11 reminders to the Centre seeking funds for procuring VVPAT machines.
The Centre has chosen Bengaluru-based Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) to manufacture the VVPAT units. The government has also directed the Price Negotiation Committee to negotiate the final unit price. It is expected that the two PSUs will need at least 30 months to produce over 16 lakh VVPATs.
The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to come up with a tentative time period by which it can use VVPAT machines across all polling stations of the country. The Supreme Court has directed the EC to conduct 2019 national elections entirely with these upgraded machines. Earlier in 2013, SC had directed the EC to introduce VVPAT in a phased manner for 2014 general elections. SC had observed that VVPAT will ensure free and fair polls and help in sorting out disputes.
Earlier in 2013, SC had directed the EC to introduce VVPAT in a phased manner for 2014 general elections. SC had observed that VVPAT will ensure free and fair polls and help in sorting out disputes.
The usage of VVPAT machines of the Election Commission is expected to ensure free and fair elections. In the VVPAT system, when a voter presses the button for a candidate of his choice in the electronic voting machines (EVM), a paper ballot containing the serial number, the name of the candidate and poll symbol will be printed for the voter. The voters will be able to view the voter-verifiable paper audit trail slip for seven seconds after which it will get deposited in a sealed box.
8-Jan-2017: SC wants VVPAT in EVMs for fair elections.
Even as five States go to the polls, the Supreme Court has reiterated the necessity to implement the Vote Verifier Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in electronic voting machines (EVMs) to ensure 100 per cent transparency in elections.
In the VVPAT system, when a voter presses the button for a candidate of his choice in the EVM, a paper ballot containing the serial number, name of the candidate and poll symbol would be printed for the voter.
The VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their votes were cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results.
This is the second time the Supreme Court is insisting on the implementation of VVPAT in EVMs. In 2013, the apex court, on a petition filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, had directed the Election Commission to introduce the paper trail in EVMs in a phased manner for the general elections in 2014.
11-Feb-2019: Rajasthan Assembly passes Bills to scrap minimum education criterion
The Rajasthan Assembly passed by voice vote the two bills, Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Rajasthan Municipality (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seek to end the minimum education criterion for panchayat and civic polls candidates.
The previous Vasundhara Raje-led government had introduced education criterion in 2015 which required a candidate to pass class 10 for contesting zila parishad, panchayat samiti and municipal elections.
For contesting elections for Sarpanch of a panchayat in scheduled and other than scheduled areas, it was mandatory to pass class 5 and 8, respectively.
30-Dec-2018: Rajasthan Assembly Passes Bill to Scrap Minimum Education Qualification for Civic Polls.
In its first Cabinet meeting since taking over, the Congress government in Rajasthan has decided to remove the condition of minimum qualification required to contest civic elections.
The previous BJP government in the state had made it mandatory for people contesting zila parishad, panchayat samiti and municipal elections to have passed Class 10, those contesting sarpanch elections to have passed Class 8 and those standing for sarpanch elections in panchayats in scheduled areas to have cleared Class 5.
State government has decided to remove the condition of mandatory qualification for contesting in local body or Panchayati Raj elections. The requirement of minimum qualification for contesting elections is against the very spirit of 73rd and 74th amendments. It also violates the right of every citizen to vote and to contest elections, which form the basic structure of the constitution.
In a democracy, whether a person is literate or illiterate, when we can’t stop him from contesting Assembly elections, we have no right to stop him from contesting local body or Panchayati Raj polls.
Even Haryana had passed a similar law mandating minimum education qualification for those contesting in Panchayat Raj Institutions. The constitutional validity of this law of Haryana was questioned in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court had upheld the constitutional validity of the law enacted by Haryana government to bar the illiterate from contesting panchayat polls in the state. The Supreme Court had ruled that “it is only education which gives a human being the power to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad”.
The Supreme Court’s interpretation is based on the fact that uneducated or illiterate people getting elected to the local bodies can easily be misled by officials if they don’t know to write and read. In
such cases, administrative actions that they are doing can pose many challenges. The Court has further observed that it is only the education which can give people the power to differentiate between right and wrong, and good and bad.