COIMBATORE: When voters of RK Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai visit the polling booths on June 27 to exercise their franchise, they will get to see the photograph of the contesting candidates in the ballot unit. For the first time, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to print the photograph of the candidates on the ballot paper, both in EVMs as well as in postal ballots. This has been done to help electors cast their votes without any confusion.
For all elections to be held from May 1 onwards, postal ballot papers, ordinary ballot papers and the ballot papers to be displayed on the balloting units of EVM shall, in addition to the particulars as per the existing directions, also contain the photograph of the candidates printed thereon, says a ECI circular dated May 21.
Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Sandeep Saxena confirmed that printing of photograph of candidates in the ballot will be done for the Radhakrishnan Nagar by-election.
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Taking note of the fact that in many cases where candidates with same or similar names contested from the same constituency, the commission decided to take the additional measure of printing the photograph to eliminate confusion during voting.
The photograph of the candidates will appear to the right of their names and between the symbol or the column for marking vote/preference, as the case may be, ECI Secretary Anuj Jaipuriar said in the circular.
Welcoming the ECI initiative, MG Devasagayam, convenor of Forum of Electoral Integrity, said, “This will now be tried in the by-election first and subsequently followed in the general elections.”