The Prasad-Huirem Equation
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 28, 2013 -
Being a democratic system based on the principle of universal adult suffrage, any Indian citizen, who are over 18 years of age, and of sound mind and not convicted of certain criminal offences, have the voting right to elect their representatives in the State Assemblies as well as in the Parliament during election.
This is a Constructional right guaranteed to all citizens irrespective of their caste, creed, religion or gender.
So, for every Assembly or Parliamentary constituency, there is an electoral roll, which is a list of eligible voters who can exercise this voting right. According to Section 19 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, only a person who is 'ordinarily' a resident in a constituency is entitled to be registered in the electoral roll of that constituency.
However, non-resident Indian Citizens who are employed under Govt. of India but posted outside India 'temporary' are eligible to be registered as voters and exercise their voting rights in their respective home constituency.
For them and others who could not present themselves physically to exercise their voting right during election, even postal ballot system has been introduced.
These are some of the simple facts about Indian democracy and its system of election that the people have been made to understand and taught right from their student days.
But how electoral roll is prepared in Manipur is becoming a rather tricky question, especially in the light of recent revelation about some non-local residents found changing themselves into surnames of Meiteis and enrolling themselves in the electoral roll under Kakching Assembly Constituency.
A day after three members of a family from Bihar, who are running a shop at Pallel Bazar were found possessing voter's slips with their surname changed from 'Prasad' to 'Huirem' during a drive conducted by Students' Wing of the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) on August 25, seven more such non-local migrant workers have also been reportedly found changing their surnames and including their names in the electoral roll.
Now, even if enrolment of non-local migrant workers in the electoral roll by taking advantage of Section 19 (b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 under the patronage of some political parties is something well known in the State for the last many years, changing surnames to register get themselves in the electoral roll has come as a bit of surprise, as this kind of manipulation could not be possible without the knowledge or involvement of the concerned Booth Level Officer and other higher officials like Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO), who is also the Election Returning Officer (ERO).
If that is the truth, then, there is no reason why they should not be booked and punished under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 for breach of the official duty assigned to them.
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