Election Watch Committee held a discussion on the lapses in the election process during the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) elections on Wednesday so that the deliberations of the same could be forwarded to Election Commission. The discussion was held at Rishi Dhyana Mandir at Pumpwell.

Confusions in the voters’ list, chaos in reservation, lack of security personnel at the election booths and several other issues relating to election were discussed at the meeting, which was presided over by Prof Shashidhar Kotian from KMC Mangalore.

The basic aim of the discussion which brought together voters, various organisations and the elected representatives face-to-face was to make the next election procedure more efficient.

Keeping the recently held much spoken about MCC elections as an example, Mr Dinesh Pai of Election Watch Committee kept forth a list of lapses occurred during the elections and the loopholes in the procedure, compelling BJP leader Shankar Bhat, MCC Joint Commissioner Ajith Kumar Hegde, former deputy mayor Abdul Saleem and others to react.

A participant in the discussion raised the issue of misuse of a voters’ power by indulging into duplicate voting.

Responding to this, Mr Ajith Kumar Hegde said that electorates must understand their power.

“Though instances of invalid votes and duplication occurred during this election, we are striving to bring in efficient vigil by next election by placing the photograph of the voters right in the voters list itself, to avoid misuse of power of voters,” he said.

Joining the issue, another panelist Harsha said that there were many invalid votes polled by the migrant labourers.

He said that if voters do not caste their votes efficiently, then 5 years of political tenure might land up in wrong hands. Hence votes must be caste by the people mandatorily taking it as their duty. Former deputy mayor Abdul Saleem said that in certain wards over 30-40 houses were not included in the voters list and in certain places the names of the members of the same family were included in different lists.

Commenting that there is a lack of awareness among the voters on election, Mr Ganesh Rao said that instead of the political parties distributing the details about elections, it is better if the officers take up this task.

He said that the trend of the parties putting up tents near booths and distributing election pamphlets on the day of elections must be prohibited.

The participants raised their unhappiness over the confusion that often crops up over the reservation issue. Social worker Judith Mascarenhas said that the last minute alteration of reservation must be avoided.

Mr Hanumath Kamath said that the reservation for Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts must be declared during the elections itself and not after the results come out. But Mr Shankar Bhat opined that the elected representatives must elect the Mayor and deputy mayor themselves as it is the privilege of the ruling party to do so.