MUMBAI: Like in a parliamentary election, the polls conducted in your housing society may become an elaborate affair from March, with a month or more devoted to preparation of the voter list, filing of nominations, campaigning, withdrawal of candidates’ names, voting, counting, announcement of results, and filing of appeals in case of objections.
Candidates will be allotted symbols and voting will be through secret ballot. An independent society member, if appointed as the returning officer (RO), will need to undergo election training at a designated institute.
A contestant will have to be seconded by two members. There will also be a deposit.
These are among the changes declared in the draft rules issued by the state cooperatives department for elections in cooperative housing societies with up to 250 members.
The rules were awaited for over two years as a majority of the around one lakh housing societies in the state — 85% of them from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone — were being run in the absence of elected members.
“Either RO can be appointed by the management committee (MC) from the independent panel of ROs formed by state cooperative elections authority, or a member who is not a seconder, auditor or existing committee member can be selected for the RO training. Also, the electoral roll will have to be ready sixty days before the election,” the draft states.
A voter is allowed to not cast the votes for posts where he feels the candidates are not up to his expectations. This is akin to NOTA (none of the above).
A draw of lots will decide the winner in case of a tie.
Earlier, the polls would be held in a single general body meeting with a show of hands or a voice vote being among the methods adopted to elect the management committee members. Now, the provisional list of voters will have to be ready before the appointment of the returning officer, who will scrutinise it before sending it to the office of the deputy registrar.
Nominations will be verified at the level of the RO and the deputy registrar.
The draft suggests allowing 30% of the total contesting candidates to come together to form a panel and get a single symbol. Polling staff will be appointed by the RO for every election process.