Saturday, April 19, 2014

Agony & Ecstasy of being a polling officer.

Luck, fate or chance, whatever you call it, gave me (and many of my colleagues) an opportunity of being a presiding officer in the on-going general elections. Personally, it was an enriching experience, except a few hiccups here and there. I had glimpse of the  process and the efforts that go into making election a successful exercise in the world’s largest democracy. Here is an account of my experience of being in charge of a polling booth in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.

2nd phase of the general election in Odisha was scheduled to be held on 17th April 2014, but we were supposed to report to the district administration on 15th April to meet other team members, collect the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and other related materials and then to proceed to our designated polling booths. Before going for the election duty, all of us were given training on our duties, responsibilities and were warned about the consequences of a failure. The training was held in two phases on 5th and 11th of April. Few colleagues who had already carried out similar duties in Odisha as well as other states, had infused an unknown fear about the forthcoming adversities. Naturally, those of us who haven't seen a village in a lifetime, had more trepidation and were well prepared with packed foods and other necessities they deemed fit to be their saviour in time of distress. I only considered a plastic mat, torch and a packet of mosquito coil as a minimum requirement in addition to the other things of daily needs. 

Day-1 (15th April 2014):
A makeshift place of worship near a pond close to the booth
 

(After The Gods, probably Election is the only thing that 
penetrate every Indian Village)

On the first day, we were required to report at 08:00 AM at the district headquarters. About 8 buses were arranged from the township to the destination which is about an hour and half drive (we Indian have a tendency to measure distance by the time required for travel). On arrival, the election booths allotted to our respective groups were displayed. I had wished to be allotted in a rural area, with ponds, river and temples, to satiate my urge to be as close to a natural surrounding as possible, but as luck would have it, was allotted a village (Kantaballvpur) very near to the district head quarters. The next task was to find out other group members. Each polling booth is allotted eight members in total, 1 presiding officer + 5 polling officers + one Security personnel and a driver. I had the telephone number of the 1st polling officer and had met him during training so it was not difficult to find him. 2nd and 3rd polling officers had given the mobile numbers but due to some network issues it was difficult to contact them. Gradually the reporting counters started to fill in and the crowd swelled. I and the 1st polling officer ( a 58 year old school headmaster) had a tough time finding other people. By 11:00 AM, when I checked the attendance sheet with the lady in the counter, the 3rd and 4th polling had joined. It was almost 2-3 hours after joining and many of us had not found the complete team. What added to the disappointment was that team members had joined are present inside the tented area were not able to locate each other. Ingeniously some of us started advertising our booth numbers on bamboo poles and some had started hawking with a piece of paper having the booth numbers. This paid handsomely when my 3rd and 4th polling officer located me. The 3rd polling officer was a 35 year old school teacher and the 4th one was a 60 year old employee of Odisha Govt. It was already noon and we still had not found the 2nd and 5th polling officer. We decided to disperse for lunch at 12:30 pm and assemble at the designated location with in half an hour. After lunch, the attendance sheet indicated that the 2nd and 5th polling officer had also joined. 2nd polling officer (a 52 year old school teacher) was waiting for us near the material receiving counter, knowing that we had not received the material and will surely come to receive it. By 1:30 pm we received the material and by 2:00 pm we were ready to leave for the polling station. In the meantime the security personnel from the Odisha police had also joined us. We were left with two tasks now, to find the vehicle and the 5th polling officer allotted to us. We were not in a hurry since our booth was around 1 km from the place we were in, and hence decided to wait for the 5th person and then proceed ahead. 
Reminiscence of Childhood
(The elder one was trying to teach the other two
the tricks of the trade)

An hour passed and there was no sign of him. I arranged to announce his name in the public announcement giving the details of the location we were waiting for him. Meanwhile the two school teachers also scoured the arena for possible traces of him. The police guy was sent to locate the vehicle allotted to us. He also returned empty handed. It was 5:00 pm by now and after three hours of frantic searching in scorching heat, we had not located the a member and a vehicle. In between I had contacted the authorities to allow me a different officer from polling officer. My request was rejected since the 5th one has joined and I should find him and take him along. The sector officer allotted to me was also not reachable in mobile. Gradually my desperation was turning into anger and I decided to move out leaving the 5th polling officer behind. I and the security guy went in search for the vehicle in different directions. This time I was lucky to locate it. When the material was being loaded in the back compartment, we discovered a person sleeping (an example of, as one my friends often quotes a Hindi proverb, of "घोडे बेच के सोना "). Initially, we thought him to be the helper of the vehicle and thought he must have suffered a heat stroke unknown to the driver. He was woken up from the inertia and when we enquired about his wellbeing he told us that he is the 5th polling officer. My emotion at that point of time was a mixture of extreme anger and happiness. He was drunk beyond alertness and it was futile to reprimand him.

By 6:00 pm we had reached the polling booth. The school head mistress came and provided us the things we needed. Around late evening the police and the sector officer came and created a confusion that we were stationed in the wrong booth. The Booth Level Officer (BLO) was called and after matching the electoral roll of the area with that with the copy of the BLO, all confusion was brought to rest. We rested in the evening and the planned a little for next day’s activities in the school.

Day-2 (16th April 2014):
Time for Lunch & Dinner ?
(The owner sitting to the extreme left was happy seeing his
photo on a camera and requested a copy of the photo)

Poll was scheduled the next day. So we spent the day getting to know the EVMs and getting acquainted with our respective duties during polling. Layout of polling booths and movement of people during polling was planned and accordingly the furnitures were rearranged. Along with this I finished some of the necessary paper work which was required after polling. We had asked the owner of a small hotel in the village to arrange food for us for all three days. He had prepared a nice lunch, of rice, dal and coconut chutney. In the afternoon mock polling exercise were conducted which made us confident. The local representatives of the Political parties came in the evening to learn about our well being. During the evening time I explored the village and nearby areas. Though mixing with local people is not encouraged during polling duty, I took an exception and played a little cricket with a group of boys. Other part of the evening was basically getting to know more about ourselves as a team. All these activities were done, with little involvement of the 5th polling officer. He spent most of his time sleeping on the floor, oblivious of the heat. Occasionally he would wakeup to drink a mixture of water and a powder (I didn't care to ask him). I had an early night so that I can start the day early tomorrow.

Day-3 (17th April 2014)
Sitting (L-R): Presiding Officer, 4th Polling and 1st Polling Officer
Standing (L-R): Security Guard, 3rd Polling and 2nd Polling Officer

(the 5th Polling officer was sleeping somewhere)
We started the day early. By 5:00 AM we all were ready, surprisingly including the 5th polling officer. Agents arrived around 6:15 am and mock polling (a mandatory exercise in presence of representatives of the political parties to check the correct functionalities of an electronic voting machine) was started. By 7:30 am we concluded the mock polling and sealing of the voting machines and started the actual election. People had already gathered outside for voting. Gradually it gathered pace and in the intervening hour between 09:45 am and 11:00 am it had attained its peaked. There was a little low turnout during 1:00-2:00 pm (due to scorching sun) but otherwise the voting process maintained its momentum and didn't allow us to have either our breakfast or lunch. By 3 pm about 60% of the electoral roll had already voted. In between the local counsellor raised an issue that some of the people are not allowed to vote. Since their names were not in the marked copy of the electoral roll I had refused them the permission to vote. It was later found out the marked copy had few missing pages and then the District Collector arranged an annexure and sent it to me. Peace then prevailed between me the counsellor and we both agreed that we were right in our own positions and responsibilities. 

During voting some people, especially elders, had a trouble using the EVMs. Throughout their lives they had voted using a paper slip and a stamp. In times of modern technology they had a little difficulty in catching up. This created few funny situations during voting. 

  1. In EVM a voter is required to vote by pressing a button. But many of the voters examined the balloting unit of any possible holes in the machine, so that they can insert their voting slips to vote. One woman even tried to insert her voter's slip inside the button and unknowingly voted correctly. 
  2. An old man, after voting for Lok Sabha, refused to vote for Vidhan Sabha saying he had already given his vote to a different candidate and it is not good to take it back from him. Later on a polling agent convinced him and then he agreed to vote for Vidhan Sabha.
  3. My 5th polling officer allowed many people to go without voting. When confronted he countered "If they are not interested in voting then, who am I to force them?". I had to call them back for voting.


By evening voting was closed and the booth had registered about 86% polling. Other formalities were completed and we returned to the material deposit centre by 8:00 pm and submitted and got relieved of our election duty by 11:30 pm. I distributed the duty relieving slips to all except the 5th polling officer. He had disappeared as surreptitiously as he had appeared.

In between I had not realised that I was on water for the more than 24 hours, somehow my brain had adjusted to the emptiness of my stomach. A bus was arranged for us to return to Paradip but was parked away from the material dispersal centre. I had to walk down about 2 kms. Along the way two friends joined me who were also looking for the bus. Unknowingly we had crossed the parking place of bus and had moved towards the edge of the town. We decided to wait there for the bus. Spotting an open eatery nearby, our hunger was inflamed, and two of decided to have a bite. After few minutes, our third friend, who was waiting for us on the road, informed us about the arrival of the bus. We left the hotel half-filled and when we arrived at the bus stop discovered that the bus had left. Next bus was scheduled to leave at least two hours later. We decided against waiting and hired an auto rickshaw for the 52 km drive to Paradip, for a thousand rupees (we were too tired to bargain). The drive back to Paradip in a moon-lit empty highway, enjoying the cool breeze was an apt end to an otherwise hectic last 66 hours.

Few words on the electoral process:
Sun setting on the eve of Polling Day
Conducting the general elections in India is a huge task, especially considering the diverse populace, degree of awareness and topography in a country like India. India has over 800 million registered voters and distributing voter’s slip to each and every one is itself a task of gigantic proportion. As per the guidelines of Election Commission (EC) no voter should travel more than 2.0 Kms to reach a polling booth and a single polling booth should not handle more than 1600 voters. This guideline further calls for setting up a polling booth in almost every village and in some cases more than one per village. Safe transport of polling officials and EVMs from district headquarters to these villages and ensuring their security for three days is an uphill task. Further, time to time EC has changed and/or modified rules so that people irrespective of cast, creed, religion, ability, disability, gender have a right to express their opinion. Onus lies on the administration and police to accommodate them in a fair manner Looking at arrangement and management in a single district, I was in awe of the whole system.

Some people may raise the doubt about the efficacy for the whole process, since still most people are illiterate and unaware voters. Few rupees and a bottle of alcohol on the eve of polls change the judgement of voters. It is genuine to doubt the fruitfulness of the whole process when the loyalty to ideologies of leaders, if any, are prone to fickleness and can be swayed by lure of power. In our country, the votes are bought and political leaders are still reaping the benefits of inheriting a surname from their illustrious fore fathers. The very success of these leaders for last decades stands on the foundation of illiteracy, poverty and unawareness. They thrive in dividing the masses on the basis of upper and lower castes, Hindu and Muslims. And these are the very same things they promise to eradicate once they come to power. (Conflict of interest?). When you read excerpts from political rallies, they talk more about the failure of their opponent and less about their own plans.

In spite of the imperfections in the process, of the ineligibility of the leaders and the led, Election Commission has been honouring the Indian Constitution by giving an equal right to vote to all eligible citizens of a country as vibrant and as diverse as India. Since the October of 1951, when few Ladakhi Buddhist monks became first Indians to vote till today, the whole bureaucracy, irrespective of how badly we criticise it, has been successfully delivering during this one single exercise. I hope someday, this same zeal and enthusiasm of the nation, leaders and system percolates to other areas requiring urgent attention.

Personally, I am happy to contribute a little in the second best way possible for me, the best being voting myself, which I missed. 

4 comments:

coolmanyu said...

Ha ha....u more than made up for your missed vote.I really wish if I could be a part of this magnanimous event. The EC’s success is a "puzzling" triumph as Indians are typically "dismissive about the capacity of the state" to do anything right.

rabindra said...

Abhimanyu: Your wish shall be granted by transferring you to Paradip next year / before next election.

Anonymous said...

You must be first person not to vote ever..but do preside an poll process ;-)

rabindra said...

Om: Unfortunately for the country, I am not the only fool.

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