The Election Commission of India (ECI) will not replicate in the Northeastern states which are going to polls this month its initiative in Gujarat, where it signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with workplaces to determine whether employees who take leave on election day actually cast their votes, The Indian Express reported.
The MoUs in Gujarat were signed ahead of the December Gujarat Assembly elections by the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Bharathi were meant to track the electoral participation of the workforce. The CEO said that 233 MoUs representing workers from 1,017 industrial units were signed.
The Tripura Assembly elections will take place on February 16, and Nagaland and Meghalaya will be on February 27.
The ECI special officer for Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), Dr Ranbir Singh, told IE that the election commission would not be entering into such MoUs with workplaces in any state going forward.
In June last year, ECI in a press release had said, “In order to address voting apathy in urban areas, the Commission decided to undertake focused awareness activities in this respect… All Central/ State Government Departments/CPSUs/State PSUs and corporate entities with 500 plus employees shall appoint a nodal officer to ascertain leave availing but non-voting employees.”
It said that a voter awareness drive would be organised for “such non-voting members”. The move was then criticised by Opposition members with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury wrote to the commission about the “coercive step towards compulsory voting” and asked it be withdrawn.