Another repoll round the corner : Test of voters' character
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 28, 2012 -

The on-off mode of the Election Commission of India over the question of another round of repoll complements the contradictory stands taken by candidates and their respective political parties over the same issue rather well.

With latest reports from the State election office as well as from the representatives of the ten non-Congress political parties, who are in Delhi to present their case before the ECI, pointing to a distinct possibility of another round of repoll, the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer seems to have done its job and the ECI is bent on demonstrating that they mean business.

There are certain questions, however uncomfortable they may be, that should be raised, not withstanding the intent of the ECI to make the election as fair as possible. Apart from the off and on mode on the repoll question, why has it taken the ECI so long to take a definite stand on the matter ?

That there were widespread electoral malpractices detected on polling day is something which cannot be refuted and turning a blind eye to this would amount to making a mockery of the photo-comparison exercise.

It is interesting to note that while individual candidates lodged numerous complaints of malpractices during the polling, the political parties which they represented, were not in favour of repoll at all and instead came up with some alternatives such as declaring the proxy votes or bogus voting as null and void.

That this line of thought failed to strike a chord with all the candidates is there for the public to see and moreover the ECI too must have taken into account the technical difficulties that this suggestion would entail.

Apart from the technical difficulty of implementing this suggestion, such a move may not serve the purpose of making the election as fair as possible.

These difficulties taken together could be one major factor for the inability of the ECI to take an official decision sooner rather than later, but what should not be lost on anyone is the fact that efforts seem to be on to make the election meaningful.

And to make it more meaningful, the ECI and the office of the CEO should continue to maintain the degree of transparency they have done till date. Reasons for going in for repoll should be spelt out clearly.

With everything indicating that not all the complaints will be accommodated, it is also necessary to explain why some complaints have not been entertained.

There are more than enough indications that certain criterion will be taken into consideration for the repoll, such as exceptionally high cases of proxy voting, cases of use of force and intimidation etc and the need to spell out these criterion must be clear to the ECI and the office of the CEO.

Another interesting point to note is the fact that some candidates would be dead against the idea of a repoll on the ground that it would help the ‘elements’ to indulge in large scale booth capturing.

This line of argument is not without merit, for there are forces, powerful ones at that, especially in the hill districts, which can mobilise their cadres to carry out their agenda, should a repoll come along. And it stands that a fresh round of repoll would mean too short a notice to mobilise the security personnel for area domination.

The ECI should look into this aspect, for after all the core idea in going ahead with another round of repoll is to take the election process as near as possible to the universal understanding of a ‘free and fair’ election.

A tough task it is, no doubt but then the very idea of electing the people's representatives is not a joke either. This is lesson number one that the people ought to learn.

Repoll is not just a decision of giving another fair opportunity to the voters to cast their vote but is also about responsibility on the part of the electorate.

Is the repoll going to be another opportunity for putting up their votes on sale or is it another opportunity to reiterate what is public interest to the candidates ?

A repoll is a reminder that no nonsense will be tolerated and while the ECI and the State Election office have done their job in sending out this message, will this reality dawn on the consciousness of the people ?

A test of the character of the people and not only of the candidates and the election machinery, is what a repoll should be all about. This is not about idealism but about being practical for there can be nothing more practical than searching our souls on such an occasion.