Banaras Hindu University students seek proper voting mechanism for armed force personnel TNN | Mar 2, 2014, 12.47PM IST VARANASI: Students of the faculty of law, Banaras Hindu University started a campaign for effective mechanism to help armed force personnel and their family members in exercising their voting rights. According to a final year student of LLB, more than 50 students have jointly written a letter and faxed it on Saturday to the office of Chief Election Commissioner, demanding that there should be no stipulation of a minimum duration of posting for armed forces personnel to be eligible to vote and also the polling booths should be set up at unit headquarters/regimental centres. It is estimated that there are about 68 military stations or cantonments areas across the country. We want that the Election Commission should try and ensure an effective mechanism help an estimated 23 lakh army and paramilitary personnel cast their vote. The existing system of postal ballot and proxy voting is highly unrealistic. Proxy voting procedure violates the principle of secrecy since it makes the vote of a person transferable, he said. In order to register as voters at their place of posting, soldiers should have resided there for three years with their families which is very unlikely in normal conditions, whereas civilians are required to be residents for a minimum of six months in order to register themselves as voters in their place of posting. The system is denying the soldiers the right to vote at the place of posting, he added.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 08:57:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015