Editorial
Electoral roll preparation
All eligible voters must be included
A report published in this newspaper yesterday states that a number of floating people, as well as slum dwellers in less known localities, in the city might not get enlisted as voters, despite the efforts being made by the Election Commission to make the new voter list as broad-based and inclusive as possible.
The trouble with enlisting the floating, rootless people is that they are difficult to locate in any particular place. This could turn out to be problematic. Besides, most people in this category, poor and illiterate that they are, may be indifferent and do little, if anything, on their own, to get their names enlisted as voters.
As things stand now, some special efforts will have to be made to include the floating people in the voter list. The job should be part of the overall plan of placing the electoral process above any criticism. The EC cannot overlook the presence of such a huge number of people in the city.
The case of slum dwellers is a bit different in that they are known to reside in certain places, though these may not be easily accessible to the EC's data collectors. Here, we believe, the EC has to ensure that the slum dwellers are not left out of the list because of any negligence on the part of the staff employed for enlisting voters.
Enlistment of voters is no doubt the most important preparatory work needed to go ahead with the scheme of holding a free and fair election. Since the country's political future will depend largely on making the next general election free, fair and acceptable to all, it is imperative that no loophole is left in preparing the voter list. As the first step to attaining this objective, the EC has to make sure that nobody is left out of the voter list, particularly when the election officials or EC staff are aware of the presence of eligible voters somewhere in the city. It may not always be easy to approach them, but the EC has to evolve a mechanism to include the floating or the slum people in the voter list, keeping in view their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.
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