Election Commission mulls 'token' route to ease long queues at polling booths in Jharkhand

RANCHI: Polling booths in Jharkhand would have a new look this time. There would not be long queues of people standing for their turn to press the EVM button. Instead, everyone arriving at the booths to exercise their franchise would be issued a token, after receiving which, they can sit and wait for their turn to come.

The chief electoral officer, Vinay Kumar Choubey, said that by issuing tokens, an effort is being made to make the entire exercise less tiring for people who come to the polling booths. "Instead of standing in queues for long hours, the elector can remain seated and wait for their token number to be called out by the polling officials," he said, adding that this may encourage old and infirm people to exercise their franchise.

Conducting a meeting through video conference with the district electoral officers of Lohardaga, Gumla and Chatra, Choubey asked the deputy commissioners to make sufficient sitting arrangement at the booths for convenience of the electorate.

The election commission also issued guidelines for deployment of police officers with wireless sets in polling booths and designation of nodal officers for webcasting of the poll process. The CEO directed the DCs and SPs to ensure that the webcasting is without any hassle so that each and every booth can be monitored centrally. CEO sought details of preparations from the DEOs and asked them to remain vigilant about violations of model code of conduct even on polling day.

The commission, however, failed to collate the information about nomination from all six districts, 13 constituencies of which are going to polls in the first phase of election on November 30. "We are unable to release an official information about the number of candidates filing nomination from each seat unless a report signed by the respective returning officers reaches the CEO office," said a media cell in-charge of CEO office.