Political party bribed Indian Army officers during polls: EC

A report that has apppeared in the HT of 3 May 2009 is reproduced below.
As the Head of the State of this sovereign nation you are required to prosecute Mr SY Quraishi, EC for spreading canards in a foreign country about our army and the much acclaimed ECI. As a socially responsible citizen I am also interested in knowing what action the EC had taken to prosecute the alleged offenders whom he is duty bound to know by virtue of the office he holds and because of which he has dared to make such statements.
Yours truly
Veteran Major P M Ravindran

Dipankar De Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service
London, June 03, 2009
First Published: 20:13 IST(3/6/2009)
Members of a political party bribed army officers in a blatant bid to rig postal ballots during last month's general elections in India, according to Election Commissioner SY Quraishi. He did not identify the party.
The visiting Indian official, who was giving a presentation on the just-concluded elections at the House of Commons on Tuesday, said the malpractice came to light during the polls in Punjab.
He said Punjab Police personnel found that army soldiers were being corralled into voting for particular candidates by their commanding officers.
"We realised that the commanding officers of these forces were being approached by a political party and they were being bribed. And these soldiers had been told to just say 'yes sir.'
"There is no other word in their dictionary. So if a commanding officer says 'just vote for this man', all the soldiers will vote for that man," Quraishi said, answering a question about whether India - like Britain - faced problems with postal ballot fraud.
Six Pakistani-origin men were jailed for a total of more than 13 years last month after a major police investigation into an attempt to rig local council elections by fixing ballot papers in the London suburb of Slough.
The malpractice was described by the British judge as a "serious criminal offence... that attacks, affects and corrodes the roots of our democracy".
Quraishi said he was not aware of the British scandal but added that India was trying to address the problem of postal ballot fraud by strengthening the secret ballot. He said every ballot in India has to be posted separately and by registered post, the cost of which is borne by the Election Commission.

Posted at :
Political party bribed Indian Army officers during polls: EC

Armed forces ask their personnel to exercise the right to vote

26 Jan 2009, 1026 hrs IST, IANS

NEW DELHI: For the first time, the armed forces have asked their personnel to exercise their fundamental right to vote in the areas of their posting during the general elections slated for March-April.

In an unprecedented move all the personnel of the army, the navy and the air force have been asked to get themselves registered with the Election Commission office in their area of posting and exercise their right to vote.

"All of us have been asked to get ourselves registered wherever we are posted and exercise our franchise. Voter registration forms and other certificates required are being circulated among all units and departments," a senior naval official told IANS requesting anonymity.

A majority of Indian defence personnel have never voted during their service tenure for want of an effective mechanism. However, there is a provision for the armed forces personnel to vote in their areas of posting only during the general elections, provided they are registered with the Election Commission.

India's armed forces comprise a 1.1-million strong army, around 140,000-strong air force and nearly 60,000-strong navy and they can be a sizeable vote bank especially in cantonment areas.

"The main reason behind this proactive participation of the armed forces in the electoral process seems to be the armed forces being shortchanged in the Pay Commission and their lack of a say in the decision making process," said a high-ranking army official, wishing not to be identified.

Though there is a postal ballot and proxy voting system, most personnel are not aware of it.

Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major confessed to IANS in a candid interview: "Though there is the proxy voting system and the postal ballot system, things have not materialised as desired."

The IAF chief has himself not been able to vote for the last 10 years because, like most people in the armed forces, he has not been home during election time. "The last I voted was 10 years ago when I was home on vacation. I have voted only four times (in his 41 years of service)," Major told IANS.

The IAF chief's statement underscores how successive governments have failed to give effective voting rights to the armed forces.

The postal ballot system has proved inadequate due to the long delays involved in sending out voting sheets.

In September 2003, parliament had approved the proxy voting system for armed forces personnel whereby they could authorise a family member - usually a parent or a sibling or a spouse - to cast their vote by proxy.

This system draws heavily from that prevailing in Britain but has proved to be ineffective because soldiers do not even know the provision exists.

The defence ministry has time and again stressed that it is looking into the matter but has not taken any steps to rectify the problems.
Armed forces ask their personnel to exercise the right to vote