Gurgaon municipal polls: Ballots will have candidates’ photos, NOTA option for first time

The purpose of introducing candidates’ photos on the ballot is to make the system more voter-friendly, said officials of the state election commission.

In a first in the city, the electronic voting machines (EVMs) that will be used in the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) elections will have photos and symbols of all candidates. The elections are scheduled for September 24.

The state election commission has also decided to introduce NOTA (none of the above) option on the ballot for the first time in MCG polls. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The purpose of introducing candidates’ photos on the ballot is to make the system more voter-friendly, said officials of the state election commission.

“We have introduced this based on people’s feedback. Voters want photos of candidates on the ballots as it would refresh their memory and help them cast votes for the candidates of their choosing (without any error),” said Dalip Singh, Haryana state election commissioner.

“We introduced this system for the first time in the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad, recently. Our aim is to make voting a more familiar process and also convenient for the electorates so that people turn out in large numbers to exercise their right to vote,” said Singh.

The state election commission has also decided to introduce NOTA (none of the above) option on the ballot for the first time in MCG polls.

“The photo and NOTA additions are both based on voters’ demands. If voters find no candidate suitable, they can opt NOTA,” Singh said.

However, the election commission’s plan to introduce an Aadhaar-linked voting system for the first time in the country from ward number 15 in Gurgaon has taken a back seat.

“Due to unavailability of machinery such as biometric machines, manpower and time constraints, we cancelled this plan. It requires a team of dedicated officials visiting every voter to ascertain their Aadhaar number. The state (including district Gurgaon) machinery was majorly involved in the Dera Sacha Sauda case and we had to scrap the plan,” Singh said.

He said that a period of 70 days, at least, is required for initiating the Aadhar-linked voting for the 22,000 voters in ward 15. “We are likely to introduce Aadhaar-linked voting in the upcoming corporation elections in other cities of Haryana,” said Singh.

In this process, voters will be verified with their biometric data to check duplicate votes, officials said.