Col J P Singh, Retd
With the announcement of election schedule, state election machineries have started forceful campaigns across the country to spread registration and vote awareness to have a record polling in the general election. As election dates approach, one can predict massive drive and media manthan for the conduct of free and fair elections. At the end of the day, EC will pat itself on the back for having conducted this mammoth exercise peacefully with the help of security forces. But there is no visible effort from the EC to connect the same security forces comprising of 14 lakh military, 9 lakh paramilitary and over 30 lakh their family members with this gigantic democratic process. Why are nearly 5.5 million voters denied their basic democratic right to vote in every election has not been clarified by the EC, nor has this dichotomy come under media scrutiny. Serving officers and men are asking questions to people like me because they can’t ask Generals, govt or EC officials as to why the uniformed citizens are denied their basic democratic right to vote. There is no answer because the author, like many other veterans has voted only after retirement although the curiosity to vote during the service was always there.
While the EC takes great pride in reaching to the remotest location in the country, where the number of voters may even be single digit but it has not thought of 3,000 soldiers on the Siachen Glacier and lot many on the LoC. Do the uniformed people vote or not; will probably not be known to the public at large and those political leaders who enjoy Z Plus security unless they had ever asked their bodyguards. Wonder EC officials protected by the security men will ever enquire or ensure it.
As per EC Notification, soldiers can vote in a constituency away from home, if they are posted there for more than three years and are registered in that constituency as voters with their family members. This restriction makes it impossible for them to vote unless it is a permanent defence establishment where soldiers have longer tenure and live with families. In normal peace time stations it is difficult to get registered as voter because of nature of duty and inaccessibility of registering authorities. It is difficult to vote, even if registered, because most of them move from one station to the other in less than three years. In most cases they move unaccompanied by the families when they move from peace to field. However in Nasik Military Cantonment, author is privy to men in uniform voting in Municipal Corporation and Cantonment Board elections with their family voters in the polling booths established in the close vicinity. Once an experimental ”in unit polling’ has been conducted by EC in Jaipur Cantt.
EC also provides the options of postal ballot and proxy voting (allowed since 2003). But the procedure for proxy voting has not been made known. Most of the officers and men are not aware of it. For postal ballot, the ballot paper has to be sent by their home constituency election officials. These options can hardly be exercised firstly because of the conditions laid down by EC and secondly because of the service conditions.
This article is intended to bring this issue to light well before the voting process begins so that J&K Election Commission can consider establishing polling booths in unit locations to enable security personnel posted in J&K vote for which Supreme Court is expected to issue directions shortly on the petition of Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP.
If an extensive survey is conducted, it will reveal that just about 5 percent of the soldiers would have ever had a chance to exercise their franchise. Contrast this with the length to which other democracies go to ensure that their soldiers vote. In the midst of World War II, in 1945, the British provided mobile polling booths in the jungles of Burma for their soldiers to vote. American law allows early voting and each election board is granted full discretion in making rules for the military and granting time extension to absentee voters. In UK, every soldier votes and proxy voting is allowed for overseas voters. In Canada soldiers can vote by e-mail or by casting votes in the polling stations established in the units. But 67 years after independence our security forces remain disconnected with voting. Hence civil society and media may have to exert pressure on EC to make arrangements for their on duty voting. JKESL intends meeting state Chief Electoral Officer in this regard.
Talking to a former Adjutant General, author learnt that EC ignores sending postal ballots to the army units because large ballot papers have tens of same or similar names in the a constituency. Although we have come a long way from the old paper ballot to electronic voting with capabilities of transferring votes and data, EC has not tried it out on the security forces which amounts to shirking responsibility. America, with worldwide spread of its soldiers facilitates their voting by allowing them a pre / post election polling period. It is the time that the EC learns from other democracies and adopts best practices.
The de facto dis-enfranchisement of military and paramilitary personnel begins with the voter registration and electoral list revision. A soldier in Siachen or North East cannot be present in the town to register as voter when the registration opens. If his family is staying in his duty station, they are also not registerd. Hence a soldier who guards the polling booths and country’s border is not in EC’s mind so far as his right to vote is concerned. Their registration therefore be done through their units and procedure simplified. Polling booths should be set up in the units where the soldiers can vote and the data be electronically transferred to his home constituency. Former CECs/ECs can suggest easier ways, if any, by which this can be accomplished. The voting by security personnel need not wait for the date of polling. It can begin before the due date as in US. This option needs to be explored.
Since the soldiers do not vote and is not a vote bank, it impacts the policies and actions of govt such as neglect of the armed forces and their defence preparedness / welfare and ‘National War Memorial’, their pride project. Approach of political class is dictated by the numbers of votes to be gained and hence voting by security personnel will be in the national interest and hence assumes importance.
81.45 Crore voters will vote for the 16th Lok Sabha but those in uniform will remain orphaned unless the Apex Court and the EC do their bidding. Security forces personnel should be allowed to vote in their duty station before polling dates if they have to be relocated for election duties. Every unit should designate a Unit Electoral Officer to get the soldiers and their family members registered with the state election authorities and to help them in conducting ‘in unit’ polling.
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