THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For 37-year-old Saji S, election morning began with resolve and ended in quiet disbelief. Determined to cast his vote early, he reached booth no 60 at Kachani government high school in Vattiyoorkavu constituency by 8.30 am only to be told that his vote had already been recorded.
What followed was a mix of confusion and dejection. Saji had made the effort to be among the first voters of the day, and suddenly found himself locked out of his own democratic right. Officials later suspected impersonation, with allegations that someone had collected his voter slip earlier and voted in his name.
“He stood there, crestfallen and in disbelief. Initially, the polling officials tried to hush up the matter. But when we raised a big hue and cry, they took the matter seriously,” said Althaf, a political worker in Kachani. “We demanded that the CCTV visuals be examined but the officials refused,” he added.
Saji argued his case for at least an hour, while other voters gave him suspicious looks. “I was portrayed as the wrongdoer with no fault of mine,” he said. Saji suspected that the polling official made the wrong entry of some other voter against his name.
Though officials allowed him to cast a “tendered vote” as per procedure, the reassurance offered little comfort. Saji’s experience left behind a deeper concern about trust in a system where, for one voter at least, the right to choose had already been taken away.