STEPS BEING TAKEN BY THE ELECTION COMMISSION
TO ENSURE FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS IN JAMMU & KASHMIR - PRESS NOTE
With
a view to ensuring that the next J&K Assembly elections shall
be among the fairest in the history of the State, the Election
Commission chose to interactively engage with all the players
in the electoral process, viz., recognised political parties in
J&K State, the local press and government officials, particularly,
field functionaries who conduct elections, many months in advance.
The main objectives were to have a sound system in place, to create
an atmosphere for competitive elections and impart a sense of
security to intending parties and candidates.
2.
To this end, the Chief Election Commissioner, alongwith Election
Commissioner, Shri B.B. Tandon, and accompanied by a team of Election
Commission officials, had visited both Jammu and Srinagar and
held detailed discussions with representatives of all recognised
political parties in J&K State, members of the press and the
concerned officials, including Deputy Commissioners of districts,
in March, 2002. Thereafter, officials from the Commission have
been making visits to the State every month to observe on ground
that the directives of the Commission are actually being followed
and implemented. The last important visit took place towards the
end of May, when Election Commissioner, Shri T.S. Krishna Murthy,
along with the concerned Secretary in the Election Commission
dealing with the J&K State, went to Srinagar.
3.
The first task that the Commission carried out in its March
visit was to disabuse the people that just because they were visiting
Kashmir, the elections were around the corner. All concerned were
told in emphatic terms that the elections were a long way off
and large number of management inputs were to be put in place
before they would be held. They were also told that repeated visits
to the State shall take place so that the Commission drives information
on a first hand basis about the nature of implementation on ground
of its directives. Finally, it was clearly spelled out that it
is the Commission and Commission alone which shall decide on the
dates and schedule of elections.
4.
The inputs received from the political parties have been most
helpful to the Commission in charting out its course of action
to ensure a good election in the State. All the political parties
had complained that the electoral rolls were inaccurate, containing
within them large number of dead voters, that they were unwieldy
as they contained a large number of supplementaries and that they
were in large parts not legible due to repeated photocopies. The
political parties also urged the Commission to issue identity
cards to voters to prevent bogus voting. They wanted the existing
polling station locations to be rationalised so that voters don’t
have to travel over long distances. Finally, when they were informed
that this time the elections would be conducted through Electronic
Voting Machines (EVMs), they welcomed it as EVMs totally rule
out any abuse in the counting of votes.
5.
Based on its interactions with different groups in J&K
State, the Commission has so far taken measures in the following
areas with a view to bringing about good election practices during
polls in the J&K State. They are :-
i)
Making available to all concerned in the State clean, legible,
computerised electoral rolls of high accuracy, which would form
the basis for the electorate to cast their franchise.
ii)
Moving electronic voting machines into the State to subserve the
stated intention of the Commission to conduct the elections by
using EVMs in all polling stations.
iii)
Issuing instructions to the concerned field functionaries in the
State to rationalise the polling stations so that not more than
three polling stations be housed in one building and by and large
no voter is to traverse more than 2 kms. to reach his polling
station. This exercise, which is to be carried out in consultation
with political parties, is to be over by 25.06.2002.
iv)
Issuing directions to the law and order authorities to ensure
that there is a measure of equity amongst recognised political
parties in getting security cover so that their election campaign
can take place on an equitable basis.
v)
Issuance of photo identity cards to voters in State.
6.
The points enumerated above show the efforts being made by
the Commission in ensuring good and clean elections in the State
of Jammu and Kashmir. However, some amount of elaboration is necessary
on the two points of computerisation of electoral rolls and issuance
of photo identity cards. Due to a variety of reasons, the primary
one being unrest in the Valley, the electoral rolls of the State
were last intensively revised in 1988. Thereafter, they have been
revised, more or less every year, on a summary basis. Thus, over
a period of 14 years, the rolls have generated a large number
of supplements of inclusions, deletions and correction and have
become unwieldy and lacking in accuracy. Moreover, the rolls have
been hand-written and photo-copied from time to time whenever
summary revisions took place or elections or bye-elections were
held as a result of which a large mass of illegible paper reached
both the polling stations and the political parties and formed
the basis for the voting which took place. This was the common
complaint made by all political parties when the Commission made
the aforesaid visit to the State in March, 2002.
7.
The Commission, therefore, launched the programme to bring
about accuracy in the rolls by removing dead voters there from
and including those who have been left out for any reason, with
reference to 01.01.2002 as the qualifying date. This was carried
out as a special drive during April to May, 2002, in which the
entire electoral machinery in the State was actively involved
right down to the polling station level. As urged by all political
parties in rural areas, this exercise was carried out by comparing
the rolls with the panchayat rolls. This has resulted in fairly
clean rolls in the State comparable in its accuracy to other States.
The computerisation of rolls in Jammu and Kashmir, which are in
Urdu, was held up because of non-availability of proper fonts
and the expertise in data entry in Urdu in large numbers. This
problem was overcome by locating a software company that developed
the programme by which the rolls in Urdu could be computerised,
and by entrusting the work of data entry to the Uttar Pradesh
Urdu Academy. The entire operation, some small portion of which
is still underway, was launched in the last week of April with
teams from all the 87 Assembly Constituencies in J&K State
going over to Lucknow and Kanpur with their electoral rolls. Each
roll with the mother roll of 1988 and supplements of all subsequent
years upto 2002 has now been consolidated into one roll. The data
entry in Urdu, being carried out at 15 centres, was corrected
for errors once at the centre itself and thereafter taken back
to the Districts for another check and brought back to Lucknow
and Kanpur for further corrections. It is only after such intensive
checks that computerised rolls are being finally printed which
would be used for the elections. This massive exercise is almost
over, with 90% of the work, i.e., data entry of about 52 lakh
electors out of about 55 lakh total electorate being already finished.
The Commission, through this release, wishes to place on record
its deep appreciation of the field staff of all the Districts
in J&K State, who have carried out this arduous work, and
also to the UP Urdu Academy for carrying out this huge task without
any slippages.
8.
As regards the photo identity cards, because the current computerisation
of J&K rolls does not have the full backup of 46 control tables
as in the other States and the rolls in J&K State have been
generated with 8 control tables, the conventional method of issuance
of photo identity cards by using computers cannot be adopted in
the State at this stage. Moreover, in view of the security implications
of photo identity cards, it was felt that a higher order of security
is necessary for photo identity cards in Jammu and Kashmir than
in the rest of the country. The Commission has, therefore, entrusted
to the India Security Press, Nashik, the task of preparing pre-formatted,
pre-numbered photo identity cards on special security paper on
which the elector’s photograph furnished by him would be affixed
and the card laminated and issued to him/her. This is a measure
to achieve Commission’s objectives to ensure compulsory identification
of voters at the time of elections. Under this ambitious programme
to be launched shortly, the cards would start to be issued to
the voters in Jammu and Kashmir from 15th June onwards.
Necessary precautions have been taken to ensure that it is only
the genuine voter who gets the card. Also, the Commission will
ensure through appropriate directions in time that no genuine
voter is denied the right to cast his/her vote.
9.
Lastly, the Commission wants to carry out a historic first
in the election management for the elections in J&K State.
The Commission, through its computerisation of rolls, would generate
voters slips on household basis for the voters in J&K State
and issue these slips to them at their door steps. This has been
a long-standing demand of most of the political parties with the
Commission as it considerably reduces their cost in campaign as
well as ensures a fair and equitable outreach.
