Challenges in the Management of Electoral Rolls…

a presentation by…

M. Angamuthu, Deputy Commissioner:: Karimganj:: Assam

Hemanta Narzary:: Chief Election Officer:: Assam

Challenges in the Management of Electoral Rolls…

1.0.The electoral roll….

The most important basic document for conduct of election in India is the ‘electoral roll’. This document evolved over a period of time and always remained as the ‘holy document’ for any kind of election in India. Its importance and effectiveness can be gauged from the fact that its correctness, fidelity and coverage changed over a period of time but still it remains as such as the most ‘primus’ tool for the conduct of election. Again tracing the evolution of electoral roll to the ‘Constitution of India’ and Article 324, has its own meaning and focus. Here the importance of electoral roll, its uniformity and acceptance as ‘undisputed document’ is phenomenal and almost remained as the ‘most important public document’, at the disposal of various stakeholders from ECI to BLO.

Though vast electoral machinery from ECI to State Election Department and to District Election Office with ERO, AERO, BLO and now BLA is in place, but still is this the document which strikes its sanctity and primacy with the electors or voters as such or is this most abused document by its stakeholders??? The glowing testimony and success to this document can be gauged from number of successful elections conducted over a period of time.. As such this is, one of the finestdocument with due care and diligence given to it at all level. Yes… its sheer size and volume evolved over a period of time with men and machinery. Of course, with its evolution good number of challenges too…

1.1.The Karimganj electoral roll…..

  • In a district like Karimganj, which borders country like Bangladesh, from where suspected infiltrators or alleged resident of the Bangladesh, through porous border, may enter or can take advantage of similarity in morphology, culture and in the backdrop of historical similar lineage, etc, - the matter requires a rationalized approach to have a flawless electoral roll…
  • Unabated heavy migration of labour forces to the tune of 2 lakh voters per year (as assumed)

1.2The ‘D’ voters…

In general, concept of ‘D’ (doubtful) voters in election history of India is very vague, arbitrary and disputed over a period of time. After the scrapping of controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, and with Foreigners Act 1946 in force as such, no respite and improvement in the process of determination and elimination of so called ‘D’ voters. In fact, it is observed sometime, - it is difficult to find out the whereabouts of the suspected people. Even the Members of the Foreigners Tribunal observed that for serving summons, etc and expedite the process seems like an arduous task. Most of the Foreigners Tribunal poorly manned,- with sometime a Member looking after four tribunal at a row with minimum man power and helping hands. Not to speak about computer etc, the existing infrastructure is so minimal, no proper building and accommodation and most of the tribunals are being looked after by the district administration. The problem is more pressing in sensitive district like Karimganj in particular and Assam in general. Two member tribunal and one is not being manned for so many years and existing one member looking after four tribunals. But, there are ‘D’ voters and their actual numbers sometime create doubt, because of complications arising out of its judicial nature and extra caution to be exercised. Unfortunately, the so called ‘doubtful citizens’ possess all legally valid documents, otherwise contrary to the genuine citizens, -who fail to produce and seldom have any kind of document. Needs thorough examination. Moreover, identification of ‘D’ is also quite complicated process and once identified court proceedings, etc takes long time. There is also gap in communication by the foreigner’s tribunal, etc.

2.0.The Issues and challenges…..myths and mysteries…

Size & volume of the electorate/voters

Lack of knowledge & awareness amongst electors/political parties

Illiterate electors

No permanent machinery for the continuous updation

Differences in administrative units and machineries

Heavy inter migration of electors

Procedural bottlenecks

Technological problems

2.1.Size and volume of the electors/voters…. Roll algebra and arithmetic….

  • Preparing a uniform, standardized electoral rolls for the election is ergonomically multifarious task. The amount of work and labor by the machineries associated with the preparation is something one cannot quantify literally. As such, at different levels with segregated skills, knowledge, motivation and training are amorphous and magnified.
  • Proof of reliability, size and volume of the exercise, some inherently inbuilt inaccuracy, inadvertent error.. Here exercise involves good number of polling stations, electors & officers at various level brings multitude of problems..
  • The concept of “ORDINARILY RESIDENT” under Sec 20 of the RPA 1950 need thorough examination… Criteria of ‘sleeping’ are to be fixed and quantified.
  • It also brings validity and tests, the technical competence at all level from ECI to BLO.
  • The transition from polling station to polling station is lengthy and time tested process and involves continuous processes and system updation…
  • The present unit of election process with revenue village and number of electors is quite enormous and lot of changes in the concept, like relevance of revenue village in rural context is ambiguous and sometimes voters fail to accept it as a basic unit..
  • Not reflecting the exact details of the voters/electors
  • Sometimes, problems in the form of duplication, repetition and inclusion of ineligible voters, dead & shifted voters etc with alleged deletion of the voters from socio-economically weaker sections
  • Errors and mistakes in the form of names (elector/father/mother/husband/other, etc), date of birth, sex, age and address etc. Again, recording the names in one language and translating in the other language with the software etc leads tangible mistakes.. some voters are very serious about their age, sex and name etc. Any kind of mistake in these forms, makes the process and electoral roll a weak document..

2.2.Heavy inter migration of electors/voters

  • Concept of ‘ordinary resident’, which revolves around the period of six months: creates some practical problem to the electors. Here, in some cases, the Migration of electors (students/job holders/labours, etc):: for example in Karimganj district alone average 2 lakh labour moves out of the district, each year, to the neighboring states like Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, etc for at least 6 months to one year at a stretch. Here normally male labour moves out leaving their spouses and children.
  • Five thousand students move out for the period of 3-5 years continuously for studies etc.
  • No inherent mechanism to take care of them, as their names will be deleted ordinarily without their knowledge..

2.3.Lack of knowledge, awareness amongst electors/voters & political parties… distorted perception to rhetoric…. Voters education & knowledge

  • 99% of the voters are complacent…. Honestly speaking, majority of the complaints related with electoral roll is from media, NGOs and socio-pressure groups.
  • Normally, even the political parties fail to register and notice any complaints or suggestions.. Here the process of complaint etc starts always before election and at critical eleventh hour…
  • Voters fail to understand and appreciate the nuances of electoral roll and its relevance… interestingly, some of the voters tend to give a little bit importance to the electoral roll, presuming that names in the electoral rolls is the via media for getting job and various kind of government aids/benefits etc.,
  • Some voters fail to understand the concept and relevance of EPIC or voter ID card with electoral roll… even the so called literate and semi-literate people think that EPIC can take care of their voting rights and so on ….
  • Last minute effort… most of the electors tend to find out their names at the time of voting only and if their names are not listed -means, they will squarely blame it on the system from ECI to BLO.
  • Role of political parties in the preparation of electoral roll is normally passive and some of the parties extend their hands just before election… Most of them give importance to deleted names than added names etc.,
  • Challenges with the women voters/electors… Highly stigmatized and difficult to extract and verify the facts (especially from Minority voters-very poor response and almost difficult to collect or extract the requisite information.

2.4.Illiterate electors/voters

  • In general, voters/electors are the least informed person at the time of election and before election also.. Difficult to identify the status of elector in the roll, especially by the voter himself/herself. Here booth level assistance being rendered by the contesting candidates and political parties to the voters/electors informally. This type of practice and assistance may influence the illiterate voters, presuming that they are getting good services at that moment of time. Here in urban areas also voters face same problems, because in most of the cases same building houses at least two to three polling booths and extent of influence by the booth level assistants is sizeable.

2.5.No permanent machinery for continuous updation

For ensuring the robustness of the electoral roll and its validation certain process in the form of continuous updation is in vogue. Here normally updation duty is performed by BLOs, who are normally government employees and supposed to perform roll related works in addition to their normal regular duties. In the process, both the functions and responsibilities are being hampered. Because of their part time responsibility, sometimes wrong, incorrect data are incorporated in the roll, which adversely affects the credibility and accuracy of the electoral roll. As house-to-house survey and compilation is a time consuming and strenuous job. Some time, different work schedule, job nature, climate etc make their life miserable and fail to perform their assigned duties in expected manner.

Institution of BLA and recognized political parties… literally no role and responsibilities till election processes… Need proper activation of at least recognized political parties and fixing responsibilities on BLA etc. Most of them fail to render any tangible service or help at the time of preparation of electoral roll and role is restricted at the time of election only

2.6.Problems with administrative units and machineries

Who is the owner of the electoral roll?? ECI or State Election Department/DEO/ERO/AERO/BLO??? No clear cut demarcation of ownership and level of ownership. Otherwise, as per our Constitution, legally, electors are the owners, but here it is otherwise and practically no one owns it… even the political parties tend to ignore and give credible importance, just before the election…

It is the right time to find out and fix the basic units of election and hierarchy like Gram Panchayat in rural areas and ward in urban areas. As such there is no uniformity in the existing system and need quantum improvement.

BLO are not permanent..

EROs/AEROs not fixed…

Poorly augmented and equipped machineries in terms of computerization and digitization of electoral processes.. Including computer engineers/personnel etc.

2.7.Procedural bottlenecks

  • When continuous updation is in the process, no point of doing summary revision
  • Problems with continuous updation till last day of nomination of candidates
  • Preparation and Publication of supplements-1, 2 etc makes the process too lengthy. Keeping ‘mother roll’, ‘draft roll’, supplements may not be relevant now
  • Preparation of marked copy/certified copy of electoral roll after nominations
  • No point of keeping processes‘exclusive’ for ‘election year’ and ‘non election’ year..

2.8.Technological bottlenecks

Weak link in terms of technological up gradation and documentation. It is to be noted that various kind of softwares are being used to prepare electoral roll management system and no uniformity exists.

E-readiness, connectivity, power availability, hardware, software, trained human resource; viable operating model, etc are need of the hour…

When de-duplication software used last time at the time of Parliament election, failed to produce desirable result…

3.0.Possible solutions…

3.1.For Karimganj district…..

  • The “ORDINARILY RESIDENT” criterion should be given proper emphasis. The documents, basing upon which new names being considered for inclusion need be properly checked-up by the issuing authority, especially border district like Karimganj.
  • Agencies like Border Security Force etc should be given extra responsibility of maintaining separate data base in each border villages and if necessary an exclusive data base may be created by the forces to check infiltration, inclusion of any doubtful citizen, studying population trend etc
  • An organized data analysis with the ensuing Census 2010-11 and NPR may be taken up and a corroborative study can be arranged with population study institute etc
  • Involvement of Panchayat Raj Institutions and placing electoral roll in the Gram Sabha meeting and getting endorsement before addition, deletion and examination of any claims.
  • Exclusive data base for migrant electors/voters and acceptable solution at the level of BLO to be given
  • Conduct of special electoral roll survey and preparation of electoral data base for the border district, with necessary input from Census and NPR and through examination and studies to be conducted.. Flawless electoral roll and EPIC should be the top most priority.
  • Along the side of Indo-Bangladesh border, BLOs/AEROs may be engaged who are strangers to the place as over acquaintance also creates imbalance and sometime problems too. The representative of local self government and force personnel like BSF may be assigned statutory duty, collaterally along with the BLOs to check new claims etc.
  • To achieve proper electoral roll preparation, it is to be ascertained at grass root level namely, BLOs and BLA to discharge duties together, i.e., work jointly...

3.2.Training, voters education and awareness

Training of BLOs & BLAs together with PRI representatives members of Gram, Anchalic and Zilla Parishad in rural areas and Ward Commissioners in Urban areas. This will give rise to proper cooperation and cohesiveness amongst all functionaries and almost all the problems with the electoral roll can be taken care of.

Such kind of training also creates awareness amongst people about the election process, functioning of EVMs etc otherwise people tend to believe the rumors about the authenticity and functioning of EVMs

Involving PRIs, placing the electoral roll in Gram Sabha meetings at least once in a year.

Electors/voters friendly services like setting up of voters assistance booth or help desks at each polling stations, toll free help line, call centers, SMS based help lines (like railway enquiry), ATM type information kiosks (ECI, CEO, DEO and ERO offices) and engaging one NGO per LAC for voters awareness and education. List of voters to be displayed prominently in each polling station.

Special care to be taken for ensuring the list of electors from socio-economically weaker sections.

Acceptability and accessibility of the electoral roll with wider perspective programmes like NREGA, Government aids/benefits, etc. Compulsory inclusion of electoral roll as documentary proof will increase its acceptance and in turn creates awareness too.

3.3.Technical back up and upgradation…

  • Need improvement and uniformity, as codification and process reengineering at district level with complete set like “Election Data Management Cell” with District Data Manager cum System Administrator, District Data Assistant and Data Assistant at each LAC level with proper back up and forward application tools. Similar arrangement at CEO and ECI level will serve lot of purpose.
  • Electoral rolls to be uniformly standardized and need for central data base at State, district and LAC level.
  • Standardized control tables with proper conversion mechanism like English to Hindi, Assamese to English and Tamil to Assamese etc.
  • Time tested and unique De-duplication software is the need of the hour. Software to be developed at district and state as a unit, with uniform functions and search facilities
  • Exclusive software for ‘D’ voters for the border district and linking with Foreigners Tribunal for automatic updation and linking..
  • Separate software and database for migrant voters/electors at district and state level..
  • Uniform database and comprehensive electronic machineries at the district and state level..
  • Capacity building of EROs and AEROs and providing computer etc to EROs. Shifting the entire function of electoral roll with the ERO level within their jurisdiction.
  • New standardization database of electoral roll management system (ERMS) is good sign and creation and posting of computer professional at the district level. As of now, NIC is assisting and plagued with number of activities. As such, now every activity is going on in ad-hoc basis.
  • As digitized form of data always pose risk of hacking and other exigencies, proper back up is essential.
  • Validation of electoral data with Census 2010-`11 and UID project will give additional credibility to the roll and number, age, sex, address, population break up etc can be compared. Especially studies on the growth of general population with electors and trend analysis will give right impetus to the process as a whole. Analysis of electoral roll with statistical tools and linear programming etc will give edge to the credibility of electoral roll
  • Electoral roll with biometric authentication (UIDAI assistance), may be started with border districts of India.

3.4.Other solutions…