BSF, Army IAF personnel unable to vote

JAISALMER: Thousands of BSF, Army and Air Force jawans and officers deployed in borders will not be able to vote during the Lok sabha elections. In many states, the polling has already taken place and in few states, voting will take place in the next three to four days. Till now none of these jawans and officers have received their service ballots and the government has not done any arrangement on the issue.

In the state, the personnel did not get postal ballots and could not vote in the polls conducted in 20 Lok Sabha polls on April 17.

There is an air of disappointment among the security forces because of not being able to take part in the country's biggest democratic festival.

After the last date of withdrawing names by candidates, district election officers gave orders to print voting papers but as very few service voters were registered and could be sent only to them.

The Supreme Court in its ruling had ordered to send the service ballots to jawans of the Armed Forces and paramilitary personnel deployed in the country few days before the polling but no action has been taken in this direction.

An Army officer said some time ago, an inquiry was made from his headquarters in regard to sending service voters but till date he has not received any service voters.

District election officer N L Meena said as per the information provided by the headquarters of security and other Central employees, the service ballot voters' lists were prepared. In Jaisalmer district, a total of 847 service voters are listed out of which Jaisalmer assembly segment has 363 and Pokaran assembly segment has 484 voters. They had already sent for service voters’ registration.

In Barmer barmer district, there are 1,103 service voters. They had also sent for service ballots through registered post with their addresses, an official said.

Defence spokesperson Col S D Goswami said, "Taking part in the electoral process, including voting, is considered a very personal and confidential matter. As such Army, as an organisation, does not keep a close watch on such activities of its personnel nor does it keep the details of exact number of personnel taking part in the process. It merely facilitates their participation in the election process in coordination with the local election officials."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/lok-sabha-elections-2014/news/BSF-Army-IAF-personnel-unable-to-vote/articleshow/34015990.cms