Uttarakhand State Election Commission adopted a highly irresponsible and careless attitude in conducting the elections : Anoop
Report on Irregularities in Municipal Elections
Accurate Voter Data for All Municipalities to be Provided in the Next Thirty Days
Electoral Stakeholder Meetings to be Held in Every Urban Local Body
Dehradun
Social activist Anoop Nautiyal has called for a detailed investigation and report on the irregularities and mismanagement in the municipal elections, demanding that the shortcomings be identified and rectified for the future.
He stated that the reports that have come to light clearly show that the Uttarakhand State Election Commission adopted a highly irresponsible and careless attitude in conducting the elections. Given the chaotic nature of the municipal elections held yesterday, he presented three demands to the State Election Commission.
According to Anoop Nautiyal, in many areas, voter names were found missing from the voter list, and in several places, the voting process was extremely slow. Even after 5 p.m., the scheduled end time for voting, long lines were observed at several booths. Voters took more time than necessary to cast their votes. The State Election Commission should investigate the reasons behind this overall negligence in detail, and an initial report should be issued within the next two weeks under all circumstances.
He also expressed regret over the large number of missing names from the voter list. He said that this is a violation of people’s democratic rights, which cannot be compensated. The possibility that this may have affected the election results cannot be ruled out either.
An important aspect of this issue, according to him, is that the number of voters is not just a statistic. Due to the lack of census data, the Uttarakhand urban voters numbers could have been useful for urban planning and for authorities, elected representatives, the media, and those working on urban issues. However, because a large number of voters’ names were missing from the list, this data has now become unreliable. Therefore, it is necessary that the State Election Commission investigate how many people’s names were missing from the voter list in all municipalities and release a ward-wise and municipality-wise list of missing voters within a month.
Presenting his third demand, Anoop Nautiyal asked that within the next month, electoral stakeholder meetings be held in all 100 municipal bodies of the state where elections were held. These meetings should include representatives of political parties, election officials and staff, people from social organizations who were involved in the elections, officials and staff of the State Election Commission, and members of the media.
These stakeholder meetings should discuss all the issues that led to mismanagement and negligence in the elections and should come up with a roadmap for future improvements. A detailed report based on the conclusions of these meetings should also be released to ensure electoral reforms and address these shortcomings in future elections.
