India ink for scripting new era in Egypt

India is likely to leave an indelible mark on the presidential election in Egypt in September. The country electing its new President, after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak this February, will use indelible ink used as a marker in India since 1952 to prevent multiple voting. Chetan Chauhan reports. Lasting impression

Updated on: May 18, 2011, 24:54:43 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Egyptian elections will have a 'made in India' stain. The country electing its new President, after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak this February, will use indelible ink used as a marker in India since 1952 to prevent multiple voting.

It would also be a litmus test for the Indian electoral system, as United Nations wants the Election Commission's expertise to play a role in conducting polls in 12 Arab countries, which faced popular similar uprisings after Mubarak's ouster.

A team of the Election Commission (EC) made a presentation to the officials of the newly set up election management bodies of Arab countries, with 728 million voters, in Cairo earlier this month.

"Countries such as Lebanon and Algeria showed great interest on use of satellite and SMS service for conducting elections," said Akshay Rout, a director general in the commission.

There was lot of interest in how India enrolls voters and its latest campaign to attract young voters and increase voter participation in elections, after only 40% voters participated in the Egyptian referendum this March, despite huge public support for Mubarak's ouster.

Although the EC is sharing its election management strategy, the election management body of Egypt has specifically asked for samples of the indelible ink, for mock drills before Presidential elections in September and for General Elections in early 2012.

Egypt also expressed a desire to acquire Indian Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) when chief election commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi visited Egypt in April, but it may not be possible.

Most of the EVMs have data of the just concluded polls in five states, which the commission has to keep for at least six months.

"We have given them two EVMs if they want to develop prototypes," Rout said.

Indelible ink has no such issues, as the public sector Mysore Paints and Varnish limited produces the ink and commission officials said they are willing to supply it to Egypt. Samples have already been sent.

Egypt would be second major country after Afghanistan where Indian indelible ink, which remains on the finger for 72 hours, will be used to mark voters. The samples of the ink have been supplied to over 20 countries.

The commission officials say after Egypt's elections they may have to play a major advisory role in conducting elections in the 12 other Arab nations gearing for polls sometime next year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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