Leave your mobile phones at home on polling day

Discouraged by past experience of allowing voters to deposit their mobile phones at the Voter Assistance Booths (VABs), the Delhi electoral office has done away with the facility in this election. Therefore, the Election Commission ban on mobile phones in polling booths will mean that voters will not be allowed to enter the polling station with their mobiles phones. In more positive news, bringing relief to voters who don’t have a voter ID card (Elector’s Photo Identity Card or EPIC) or have not received their voter-slips but are registered on the electoral rolls, the Delhi Electoral office has approved a list of alternative Identity documents that voters can use to cast their vote. Nearly seven lakh (of the 1.27 crore voters in Delhi) have been added to the list since 31 January, which explains why many voters may not have received their EPIC card. [caption id=“attachment_1469901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “We have received a number of calls from voters about not having an EPIC card or not having received their voter slips. They need not fear. On the basis of alternate documents card they can cast their vote. We have approved a list of 16 alternated photo IDs including, passport, driver’s license and office ID proof which voters can use to cast their vote,” said the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) AK Srivastava. Speaking about some of the highlights of the preparations for the polling day in Delhi, the deputy CEO spoke about the special arrangements to make polling disable-friendly. For the first time wheelchairs would be provided for and volunteers posted at polling booths to assist differently-abled voters Srivastava said. Encouraged by the response from voters to the ‘model polling stations’ initiative in Delhi assembly elections that offered voters a ‘better polling experience’ by sprucing up the polling booths with better infrastructure, the Delhi Electoral office has decided scale up the initiative for the Lok Sabha polls. Seventy such model polling booths, one in each assembly constituency, have been set up. The Deputy CEO said that of the 12,010 polling stations in Delhi, 407 had been declared as ‘sensitive’ and 90 as ‘hyper-sensitive’ on the basis of a survey by the Delhi police. Such polling stations will have additional security reinforcements by the paramilitary. Asked about the criteria for such categorisation, Srivastava said, “Stations where poll results in the last election recorded more than 80-85 percent of votes in favour of one candidate, thereby indicating a suspicious voting pattern or the influence of liquor or money power, are categorised as sensitive polling stations.” The polling booths have also been declared a smoking-free zone this time. “Being a public place, the polling booths will be a no-smoking zone. All returning officers will be given clear directions to enforce the ban,” said a senior officer at the Delhi Electoral office.