Himalayan Times (1957)

February 10, 1957

Seven

the ballot. Voting by
seoret ballot ensures ful-
lest freedom to the
elector to vote as he
pleases without the sligh-
test fear of consequences
arid also at the same time
enable him to register his
will for or against a par-
ticular form of Govern
ment. Therefore, the bal-
lot-box becomes democra-
cy's determining factor.

As many as 28.75
lakh ballot boxes, repre-
senting an increase of 4.35
lakhs over the number of
boxes during the last
general elections, will now
be used. All these boxes
will be made of steel; and
there will this time be
no wooden boxes as on
the last occasion A gene-
ral suspicion regarding the
dependability of the ballot-
boxes, whether it has any
real basis or not, can
poison the very roots of
public confidence in the
process of democratic elec-
tions. An election would
bu a failure to the extent
it fails to attract public
confidence in its fairness
Every care has, therefore,
been taken to design the
boxes in such a manner
that "absolute secrecy of
the ballot is ensured.

The ballot-boxes will
be cjloured browu for the
Afaembly election and
green for the Lok Sabha
election. At each polling
station there will be as
many ballot-boxes as there

are contesting candidates.
A ballot-box will be allot-
ted to each candidate and
it will carry prominently
on the outside the symbol
assigned to that candidate
and also his or her name.
On the inside of the box
also the candidates symbol
will be fixed.

Party Symbols

The Election Com.
mission have recognised
four all India parties,
namely, the Indian Na-
tional Congress, the Praja.
Socialist Party, the Com-
munist Party of India
and the All-India Bhara-
tiya Jan Sangh, and 11
State parties. Only these
partieB which secured not
less than three per cent
of the actual votes polled
in the last elections have
been recognised as all
India parties. The sym-
bols reserved for the na-
tional parties respectively
are: two bullocks with
yoke on, hut, ears of corn
and a sickle and the lamp
(deepa); and for the State
parties: elephant, standing
lion, bow and arrow, horse
and fider, rising sun, cycle,
cock, human hand, spade
and stoker, and ladder
All that will remain for
the voter to do will be
to identify the box of
his favourite candidate by
the symbol and put the
ballot paper through the
slit provided for the pur-
pose on the top.

In this system of
voting by identifying the
party symbols on the
bo v s, the risk of mistakes
or confusion is largely
eliminated and it enables
the illiterate voters, who
constitute by and large
the majority of the elec-
torate, to recognise with-
out aid or assistance the
party of his choice and
register his vote by merely
dropping the ballot paper
in the box of bis candi-
date. The system has the
added advantage of saving
polling time, as the voter
has no need to struggle
with pen and ink to indi-
cate his preference on
ballot paper.

The number of voters'
which now stands at 193
millions, has kept direct
pace with the increase in
population and represents
a five per cent increase
over the number during
the last elections. Over
500 million ballot papers
will be printed for use
in the elections and over
a million officers will be
in charge of the smooth
conduct of the eleotions
all over the country.

It cost India over
Rs. 10 crores to guard
the secrecy of the ballot
and guarantee that the
first country-wide general
eleotions were free and
fair. The peaceful and
orderly manner in "tvhich

(Continued on pngo ]0)