SEC flags lapses by staff during phase 1 of panchayat election

HYDERABAD: The State Election Commission (SEC) has found several lapses by election staff that led to procedural failures in the first phase of panchayat polls on Jan 21 and it has now instructed all collectors to provide fresh training to staff ahead of the second and third phase. It has also ordered repoll in three booths in Warangal Rural, Peddapalli and Nagarkurnool districts.

Allowing people to cast their ballot on the basis of voter slips sans any identity card, handing out both ward member and sarpanch ballot papers together to voters and improper folding of ballot papers were among the lapses noticed by the SEC. "Photo voter slips were given only to facilitate voters to know their centre and serial number in electoral rolls. Every voter had to produce either EPIC or any of the 18 documents for casting their vote, which was not followed. In certain panchayats the errors by polling staff led to impersonation and forced us to notify fresh polls," SEC secretary M Ashok Kumar said in his circular to the district collectors.

In some polling stations, where both ward members and sarpanch ballot papers were given simultaneously - when Ideally it should be given separately - confused voters ended up casting their vote on only one ballot paper. The SEC said at many places voters were given ballot papers without folding and many did not know the method of folding it properly.

Polling staff trained in hurry, asked to refer to handbook’

The commission has suspended eight officials till now and action will be taken against staff for procedural lapses also,” Kumar told TOI.

While district election authorities said that both Returning Officers (RO) and Presiding Officers (PO) were given training twice — once during stage I (pre-polling procedures) and then during stage II (on polling and counting procedures) under master trainers — polling staff have countered it and said that training was given hurriedly in just two sessions and they were asked to refer to handbooks if they had any doubts.

“No proper arrangements were made for conducting elections. The ink pads and rubber stamps were of inferior quality which resulted in invisible stamping on the ballot paper. We had a tough time whether to accept or reject the vote. For ROs, the election authorities could not provide minimum stationery such as carbons to submit reports to authorities,” KV Ramana, who worked as an RO in the elections, told TOI.

Polling staff alleged that not enough officials were posted at the booths — polling was from 7am to 1pm, but panchayats with 200 voters and 2,000 voters were treated equally and only two officials allotted. “Even police presence was not sufficient at polling centres,” he said.