KOCHI: To prevent rigging of postal votes of police personnel similar to that took place in 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, Election Commission has opted for two types of postal voting process for service personnel in the ensuing assembly polls in Kerala. The Commission has introduced Form 12 D for postal votes for police personnel apart from the existing Form 12.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Teeka Ram Meena told TNIE that the Commission has put in place a strict monitoring process to check rigging of postal votes of police personnel.“In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, an inquiry conducted by state police found large-scale rigging of postal votes of police personnel. A probe is still being conducted into the incident by police as per the direction of High Court,” he said.
Election officials said the postal voting under Form 12 can be availed by police personnel who are currently deployed in one district and have their vote in another district. The Form 12D can be availed by police personnel who have their vote in the same district in which they are posted.In the voting process for Form 12D, the applicant can cast the vote at a prescribed facilitation centre on any of the three days scheduled before April 6. “The normal postal ballot process will be followed for applications under Form 12,” the officials said.
However, a section of police personnel in Kerala Police Association (KPA) has come out against the continuation of Form 12. “For applicants under Form 12, ballot paper is sent to an address given in the form which is not usually verified. The applicant casts vote in the ballot paper and returns it either by post to an address specified or submit it before the superior officer. This postal voting process has a lot of loopholes. In 2019, massive rigging took place in this system. The Commission should have opted only for Form 12D for police personnel,” the officials said.
A detailed probe conducted by state police into the electoral fraud conducted by leaders of KPA in 2019 Parliament polls revealed that two policemen were directly involved in rigging the process of collection and submission of ballots. The probe conducted by ADGP (Intelligence) had found evidence of association leaders threatening police personnel to collect postal ballots and major irregularities were detected at Kasaragod, Kannur, Vadakara, Alathur, Kollam and Attingal. The probe also found that hundreds of postal ballots were sent to a single address.