By IANS
New Delhi : None of the MPs or MLAs casting their vote to choose India’s next president will be allowed to carry a cell phone inside the polling booth and the entire proceedings would be video graphed, according to new guidelines issued by the Election Commission ahead of the July 19 poll.
The poll officers have been given strict instructions that no voter should be allowed to vote without showing identity proof. It also said that ministers or leaders acting as agents of the candidates cannot be accompanied by their personal security guards.
An electoral college of MPs and MLAs will elect the Indian president, the highest constitutional authority in the country.
In an 111-page document, the commission has given separate instructions to returning officers about ballot papers and other election materials as well as opening of strong rooms for shifting ballot boxes and also how the ballot boxes should be carried to state capitals and brought back to the national capital for counting.
It said that the airlines by which the ballot boxes would be transported should give these “priority clearance”. “The box should be carried by a responsible airline official till the cargo hold of the craft and ensure that it has been safely lodged inside the hold” and the ground staff and crew should be “sensitised” about the boxes.
But on its return after the polling, the boxes should always be in the “possession of the election official concerned” and not be “moved as a checked-in-luggage”.
The returning officers, bringing polled ballot boxes to the national capital on July 20 will be allowed to travel executive class. “The seats of these officers may be blocked in such a way that they are able to keep the polled ballot box adjacent to their seat as the same will be carried as hand luggage in sealed condition and with due care so that the seal does not get damaged during transit.”
It has also given specific instructions on how to maintain polling secrecy. It has recommended a “voting compartment made of good quality card board” of size “21x21x21” to be open from one side and “fixed on the table at a considerable distance from the persons seated in the polling station, so that there is no scope for violation of secrecy”.
The July 19 elections will choose the 13th president of India, who will succeed President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The contestants are the ruling alliance candidate Pratibha Patil and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who is fighting as an independent backed by the opposition.
The new president will take office on July 25.