My first Election
Duty as a Presiding Officer
Author: Dr. K.S. Kang
When
I joined government service it almost became imminent that sooner or later I
will have to do duty during the elections and thus make my humble contribution
in this mega exercise of democracy. My first duty in elections came in the year
1993-94 when I was working as an Assistant Professor in English at Government
College Kekri, District Ajmer of Rajasthan. To manage the elections efficiently
in India
there is an Election Commission at the Centre with a Chief Election
Commissioner and two Elections Commissioner. Then there is a State Election
Officer in every state and at the district level ever District Collection
becomes responsible for holding and managing the elections to the Lok Sabha,
State Legislatures and to Local Autonomous bodies like city municipalities,
Zila Parishads, Panchayat Samitis and Gram Panchayats. Though as a College
teacher I have been doing election duty in Student Elections almost every year
except a brief period from 1986-1991 and then from 2003-2008 when these
elections were banned by the State Government of Rajasthan. However, in this
article I will be talking about my duties in public elections only. District
Collector ensures smooth conduct of elections through various Area magistrates,
Zonal Magistrates, Police Officers and of course the Presiding who gives the
real shape to elections by conducting the polling in his allotted Polling
Station.
My first election duty came as a
Presiding Officer and we all were called for training in the auditorium of
Government College Ajmer. After the pre-election training where we were
informed about the duties, responsibilities and of certain powers of Presiding
Officers and some practical training how to seal the ballot box by fixing the
green paper seal and the accounts that we have to maintain during the polling
by keeping coordination between different polling officers. After the pre poll
training I came to know that I was to proceed to a village named Ganehra
situated on the outskirts of Puskar, the famous pilgrim place of Hindus known
for world renowned Lord
Brahma Temple
I was made head of the team
consisting of four polling officers. The function of Presiding Officer was to
supervise the over all control of the polling station. He was also expected to
sign at the back of the ballot papers besides filling and signing a number of
formats and sealing various envelopes. First polling Officer’s duty was to
identify the voter by seeing his identification document and then locating his
name in the marked copy of electoral rolls. The function of second polling
officer was to issue the ballot paper and asking the voter to sign at the
appropriate place. Third Polling officer had also a voter list and the
information about the voter given by the first polling officer was to be
entered at appropriate besides making a sign with the indelible ink on the finger
of the voter. And the last polling officer’s work was to had over the rubber
seal to the voter that the voter took to the voting compartment with the ballot
paper to make his choice with the rubber seal on the ballot paper. As the
fourth polling officer also used to be incharge of ballot box so he was to
ascertain that voter put the ballot paper into the box properly and handed over
the rubber seal back.
Though the distance between the
polling station and district headquarters was barely 25 kms but it took me
nearly whole day to collect the polling material along with the ballot boxes
and the vehicle that was allotted to us and the other party member who were
mostly school teachers of different levels working at Government schools. It
was by evening that we reached the polling station and found that the polling
station was the village school and here we were to stay also for two days. As
this village was in the vicinity of the town so we did not had any difficulty
of food as there was a hotel barely one km from the polling station. So the
party members went by turn to have their meals while other polling parties,
working in remote areas, were struggling to cook food with the dry rations that
they had taken from the district headquarters. Though it was time of winters
but I did not face any difficulty in sleeping on the ground as I had taken
quilt and a mattress in my bedding.
However on the polling day we faced
difficulty regarding food though we had taken some ready made edibles like
biscuits, bread, fruits and Namkeen a day earlier from the town. The polling
was to be from 8 a.m in the morning to 5 p.m in the evening. Local villagers
cooperated with us well and polling ended peacefully. But still a lot had to be
done and we were already feeling tiredness overpowering us. However we packed
our things, sealed ballot boxes, envelopes, completed various formats and the
most difficult part of it was to deposit the things at the district
headquarters as everybody was in hurry to deposit the things and as almost
everybody reached at the same time so there were a long queues at every desk.
However it was nearly midnight by the time everything was deposited and we got
our relieving letters. As college was closing for autumn vacation so I went to
the bus stand from where I took bus to my home after completing my first
election duty successfully. This was my first election duty as a Presiding
Officer in public general elections which is considered as spine of democracy.
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