T’PURAM/KOCHI: With just five more days to go for the state assembly polls, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala has taken his fight over the bogus voters issue to the LDF camp by uploading the entire list of 4.3 lakh bogus voters and multiple entries on the web.The move came soon after the High Court directed the Election Commission to permit ‘Absent-Shifted-Dead’ (ASD) voters to leave the polling booths only after the indelible ink is dried. All photographs of the ASD voters taken in the booths be collected, digitised and kept by the commission, the court directed.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly issued the order while disposing of the petition filed by Chennithala seeking to delete or freeze the multiple entries of names in the electoral rolls.Chennithala’s ‘Operation Twins’ allows anyone to access the entire list of multiple entries in each of the 140 constituencies in the state with a click of a button. Chennithala had said he would release the entire list on the web once the court decides on his petition.
The website contains the multiple entries of voters and voters’ IDs created with the same photographs but in different names in various booths in different nearby constituencies. The website, www.operationtwins.com, also gives the constituency number, booth number, candidates names, the name of the voter in that constituency, voter ID, and the voter ID and address of the same person in the neighbouring constituency.
Disposing of the petition by Chennithala, the HC observed that free and fair elections are part of the democratic rights of the citizens. The HC bench also made it clear that all safeguards provided in the Representation of Peoples’ Act for free and fair election be scrupulously followed to avoid multiple and bogus voting.
“The EC should take all possible steps to prevent double voting or impersonated voting. A public notice should be issued cautioning the voters of any attempt to cast multiple votes, stating that strict action will be taken by the commission as per law.
Web-casting arrangements made in 20,441 booths
“The commission should take photographs of all ASD voters identified in the polling booths and also get their signature and thumb impression,” the court said.The court also observed that the Election Commission of India can explore the possibility of including the photographs of the voters in the software as an additional factor for identification of demographically similar entries and electoral photo identity cards to identify multiple entries and take action for removal, before the final list is published.
The election commission submitted that arrangements have been made for web-casting in 20,441 polling booths, to prevent any possibility of impersonation. He added that instructions have been issued in respect of the ASD list, voters have to submit a declaration under Section 31 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951. The voters included in the ASD list have to sign and affix their signature and thumb impression at the time of voting.