Tamil Nadu elections 2019: Poor voter turnout across Chennai as many yet to receive booth slips

Despite EC's clear message that voters can vote even without a booth slip, Election officials turn away the voters.
A woman cast her vote at Pallavaram cantonment school, Chennai. (Photo | Ashwin Prasath, EPS)
A woman cast her vote at Pallavaram cantonment school, Chennai. (Photo | Ashwin Prasath, EPS)

Voters from across Chennai are unable to cast their vote as they have allegedly not received the booth slips yet. Before voters could exercise their franchise, they must check if their names have appeared in the voters' list. The booth slip is a proof that their name is in the list and it will contain all the necessary information such as - which booth the voter has to go to, the serial number of the voter etc. corporation staff will have to deliver these slips to the voters.

However, Chennai voters complain that no one visited their homes to give the slip. Hence, people are now queuing outside polling stations to get their booth slips.

In several localities near Adambakkam, Madipakkam and Nanganallur people who gathered in large numbers to cast their votes in the morning returned dejected. Since most of them were not issued booth slips the Election Website was their only way to find out which booth they should vote from. Speaking to Express, M Santhosh said that the “ The election website showed that my booth centre was a school, however, while going to the booth I was told to go a different booth, which is 2 kilometres away”. 

With no booth slips and proper communication from the officials, several of the people went searching for their respective booths to cast their vote. People say that though this issue was brought to the notice of CEO a couple of days ago, it was allegedly not resolved.

Although there are helpline numbers, mobile app to find out the location of the booth etc., for a common man the booth slips would be of great help. Despite EC's clear message that booth slips only serve an informational purpose and that voters can vote even without it by showing any one of the 12 ID cards, Election officials are turning away the voters who come Without booth slips. 

The election officials ask the voters to come to the queue only after getting the booth slips. In booth No 251, at Thiruvallur Advent Christian school polling station in Chennai voters engaged in a verbal spat with the polling personnel.

On the other side, Zonal level corporation officials blame the voters for not getting booth slips. They say that they have not been able to hand over the voter slips to the respective voter as their houses remained locked most of the day for various reasons.

In many cases, people have gone out of town or to work and neighbours refused to accept the booth slips of those who are not in the house. Those who received the booth slips of their neighbours have not handed it over to them, says officials in Central Chennai Constituency.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com