Panchayat elections: Barwani records fastest poll process in second and third phases after introducing new electoral practices

BHOPAL/The fastest election process was on Friday seen in Madhya Pradesh’s Barwani in the third phase of the three-tier panchayat polls while the district recorded an 81 per cent voter turnout.

The voting was completed at most of the polling stations by 3 pm which was scheduled by the State Election Commission (SEC). In only 7 polling places, where around 800 voters were registered, the voting process was also finalised by 4:30 pm.

In the district, the third phase of the three-tier panchayat polls (Gram, Janapad and Jila panchayats) were conducted peacefully, fairly and freely at 394 polling stations in the Barwani and Pati blocks. The polls were held under the guidance and deep monitoring of the district collector, Shivraj Singh who is also the district election officer. As per the SEC directions, the elections were conducted through ballot paper.

The voting was not only taken place speedy but the counting of the ballot papers was also completed before 7 pm at most of the polling venues. And only 18 out of 394 polling stations where counting was taken place till 8 pm.

Interestingly, all 394 polling parties had submitted the polling materials including ballot paper, ballot boxes, counting slips and etc. by 9:30 pm at the collection centres.

Barwani has become the first district in the state where the poll process has been recorded the fastest in the second and the third phases of the panchayat polls as the district election officer has first reported to SEC about the completion of election information.

The election process could expedite in the remaining two phases because the district collector Shivraj Singh had introduced new electoral practices to accelerate the entire election process -from casting and counting to submitting polling materials. The innovations have played a crucial role in conducting peaceful elections in the district and mitigating electoral violence in the district. Due to these best electoral practices, the panchayat polls were conducted peacefully even at those polling stations identified as sensitive and highly sensitive.

In the recently concluded panchayat polls, it was generally witnessed that the voting process continued till late evening and counting the ballot papers were taken the entire night at some places. Long lines at the polling stations, slow voting speed and delays in counting may undermine the voting experience and cause electoral violence.

The collector of Barwani, Shivraj Singh believes that the slow election process may be one of the main causes of electoral violence. He adopted a strategy to manage these poor experiences found from the first phase polls at various levels such as at training, booth, human, communication and polling materials etc.