ELECTIONS

Lakhs of names have been reported deleted from Bengaluru's voter lists - there is even a PIL requesting the High Court to intervene. Shantala Damle, a social activist, was shocked to see over 30% names deleted from Basvanagudi constituency. (Ref: ToI, November 9th)In his response, the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, said:"I disagree with the claims of 30% deletions. A revision exercise was done, but there was no erratic deletion. Booth level officers of BBMP have visited individual houses. In April-July 2012, over 53,000 names were added after BBMP realised that genuine voters were affected in some places. If there are…

"Freedom is another word for nothing left to lose", said someone. But, for many people who often lose the little that they have, freedom is another wor(l)d. And that wor(l)d did not appear on 15th August 1947 or later for the majority who live in India at present. In fact, such a wor(l)d may never exist at all for this majority. So, sometime in mid 2007 some of us in Bangalore and other parts of the country decided that we should support and celebrate ongoing struggles for freedom. From that emerged the idea of a Civil Society Summit (CSS) -…

A PIL, questioning the deletion of lakhs of entries from the current voter rolls has come up for hearing at the Karnataka High Court. The court heard the case on November 6th.The PIL has been filed by Commander P G Bhat of Daksh, a Bangalore based organisation working towards accountability in politics and governance, Ashwin Mahesh of Loksatta party and Smart Vote, a campaign that encourages people to vote. The petitioners have named the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Chief Electoral officer (CEO), Karnataka as their main respondents, along with four other Electoral officers from Bangalore zone. It…

If you have voted in previous elections, have a voter ID card, and have not shifted your residence, still your name may have been deleted from the electoral rolls. Please verify and restore your name if deleted. In the last post we discussed that time, effort, and financial cost involved in voting should be lowered to increase voter turnout. Electoral organisation in Karnataka has created such costs by flouting rules and defying common sense. The burden of correcting the errors is on hapless voters who are not even aware of the mischief. On 18 April 2012, CEO’s website www.ceokarnataka.nic.in published…

Election Commission of India's (ECI) letter dated 12 April 2012 to Karnataka's Chief Election Officer asks him to conduct a survey of Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior, Belief, and Practices (KABBP) of electors, with the help of professional agencies. The letter shows concern about low registration and poor participation of citizens in the election process. A report on the findings of the survey was to have been submitted to ECI latest by 31 August 2012.The concern of ECI about KABBP is welcome. Anthony Downs in an essay named Economic Theory of Democracy, published in 1957 discusses the forces that play in voting.…

Election is the mechanism to form a government by the people. Every person ruled by such government should have participated in the elections to make it truly a government by the people.Under Article 326 of the constitution, every Indian citizen above the age 18 years can register as a voter. We do not discriminate based on sex, race and religion. However, only the citizens whose names appear in the electoral roll have the right to vote. Citizen casting his vote. Pic: Sankar C G Election Commission of India states that about 61 percent of the population would be above 18.…

Lok Satta party announced two of its candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in a press conference on October 4th. Shanthala Damle and Dr Meenakshi Bharath are the two candidates, who will contest from Basavanagudi and Malleswaram constituencies respectively. The party also invited members from the general public who are interested in contesting elections under Lok Satta ticket.Dr Meenakshi has contested as Lok Satta candidate in the 2010 BBMP ward elections. She is currently the Bangalore district President of the party. A practising gynaecologist, she is also active in the civic initiatives Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) and Citizens…

In this year’s graduate constituency MLC election for Karnataka, the three mainstream parties BJP, Congress and JD(S) won the first, second and third places respectively. The surprise result was that of Andhra Pradesh-based Lok Satta party, which came fourth.Legislative council elections use the preferential voting system, by which voters can rank candidates in their order of preference. Initially first-preference votes for each candidate - wherein they were ranked ‘1’ - are counted. Then candidates with the least first preference votes are removed one by one, and the second preference votes marked by their voters are transferred to the respective candidates.…

Four-term veteran Ramachandra Gowda, 74, won the graduates constituency MLC seat for Bangalore by a whisker. At the end of the first preference votes count, he was trailing the JD(S) candidate Deve Gowda. He then managed to edge past him when second preference votes we transferred from other candidates. Ramachandra Gowda (BJP). Pic: Ramachandra Gowda Ramachandra Gowda, the  incumbent, secured 8468 votes to Deve Gowda’s 8224, and Congress’ Ramoji Gowda, 39, was placed third with 5541 votes. Reformist Lok Satta party candidate Ashwin Mahesh, 42, came fourth. However his showing of 4000-plus first preference votes  has been widely seen in…

Names missing from the voters' list, confusion over booths allocated - it was deja vu for voters at the Graduate Constituency MLC election on Sunday. Although only 28% i.e. 30,800 off the 1,10,000 people registered showed up, voting was not smooth for many of them. In the previous MLC election, 20,000 voted out of the 70,000 graduates registered. MLA N A Haris with a voter trying to sort out the latter’s grievance. Pic: Sankar C G In many places, people faced difficulty in finding out their respective booths, as the website which carries the details of the voters list and…