Indira concerned over possible misuse of service votes
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, March 26 2014:
Independent candidate O Indira, who is set to contest the ensuing Lok Sabha polls for the Inner Manipur Parliamentary seat, on Wednesday said that majority of the general public in the State do not know about the 'Service Voters' and therefore the chances are high that the ruling Government may try to manipulate these votes during polling.
Service voters are members of armed forces of the Union or armed police force of a state who are enrolled as voters at their respective native places even though they actually may be resided at a different place i.e.at the place of posting.
Since they cannot cast their votes personally by visiting the polling station, their votes are cast through postal ballot, which are sent to them by the Returning Officer through their Regiment / Units / Nodal Officer of Ministry of External Affairs.
"We'll have to determine whether the Government in power has been maneuvering the Service Voters or not," Indira expressed during a press meet at her residence at Pishum here.
She said, "When we sought the list of Service Voters from the Returning Officers (ROs), we were informed that the same should be obtained from the concerned Deputy Commissioners who in turn answered that the information must be sought from the ROs." "This is ridiculous.
We've shot off letters to the DCs, ROs and Election Commission of India seeking the official information in this regard," she disclosed.
Only 2, 976 Service Voters from the State have been known through the Internet so far, but home addresses are not found against any of the names, she said, adding that it is necessary to get the exact figure with full details of the voters.
Barring the Service Voters within the State, there are nearly 71, 000 such voters from Manipur now residing in other States of India, Indira pointed out and demanded that people must be informed whether these voters could exercise their franchise through Internet or not.
If the votes cast by these Service Voters are added to the counting by the Government officials then the fight for the rights of the people will be left in vain, Indira maintained, while noting that a single vote does a lot in winning an election.