Bogus voters put Kerala poll under a cloud

One person, one vote is the principle of political equality and the basis of a truly democratic system. Violation of this rule can compromise the fairness of an electoral process. In Kerala, where an election for the state Assembly is underway, a large number of bogus entries on the voters’ list have been detected, bringing the whole electoral exercise under a cloud of suspicion.

According to Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, his party has found about four lakh bogus voters on the electoral roll. They include repetition of names and multiple names with the same photograph or electoral ID. The opposition sees a serious attempt to sabotage the election outcome in this and has filed complaints with the Election Commission, which, after a preliminary inquiry, has admitted to the discrepancies. The EC, on its part, has initiated a reverification of voter lists in all 140 constituencies and issued guidelines to prevent bogus voting. That’s easier said than done, given the scale of the exercise.

Four lakh bogus voters among an electorate of nearly 2.7 crore may not seem big, but the number is significant enough to tilt the balance in what’s expected to be a tight contest. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has dismissed allegations of voter list manipulation, but his feeble defence that it happens every time and there are also Congress workers among the bogus voters fails the test of credibility. With the EC itself acknowledging the presence of erroneous and multiple entries on the voter list, the large-scale manipulation cannot be brushed aside simply as a bureaucratic slip-up.

It does seem there has been a deliberate and systematic attempt to manipulate the electoral process. This has to be dealt with speedily and effectively for the coming election to be deemed free and fair. There isn’t enough time to overhaul the entire electoral roll before the polling on April 6, but the Commission must do all it can to ensure no one gets to cast more than one vote. While that may limit the damage, efforts must also be made to identify and punish the people responsible for the fraud. The attempt to undermine the democratic process is unpardonable, and the guilty should not be allowed to get away with what they did.