Page 119 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

Vision for a New Century Chapter 5

A new style of marking the indelible ink on voters' finger was General Elections, 2009 as many as 12,901 of the new
started from elections to five states/UT viz. Tamil Nadu, polling stations were set up for villages that had less than
Assam, Kerala, Pondicherry (now Puducherry) and West 300 electors with a view to address the concerns of distance,
Bengal in April and May, 2006. The ink was now to be applied geographical barrier, threat and intimidation. Vulnerability
as a line running from the top of the nail to the bottom of first mapping for all constituencies was undertaken.
joint of the left forefinger. Previously, since 1951, it had been
N. Gopalaswami enjoyed a tenure of more than a
applied as a dot on the nail. N. Gopalaswami took over as the
th
15 Chief Election Commissioner of India on June 30, 2006. thousand days as Chief Election Commissioner, longer
than anybody in post-Gill period. While he led the Election
Preparation of photo electoral rolls as a measure to confirm Commission into the Fifteenth General Elections, 2009 his
the identity of the voters, was prioritised during N tenure ended on April 20, 2009 after the first phase of the
Gopalaswami's tenure. By the time of Lok Sabha Elections, elections had been conducted. On April 21, 2009 Navin B.
th
2009 photographs of 82 percent of electors had been Chawla assumed charge as the 16 Chief Election
printed on the electoral rolls, and 522 out of 543 Commissioner. He steered the Election Commission
Parliamentary Constituencies availed its benefit. During the through the remaining phases of the elections.
year 2008-09, there was an emphasis on rationalising the
The Fi eenth General Elec ons, 2009 were held on the
number of polling stations for ease of voting. For the
basis of Parliamentary Cons tuencies as demarcated by
the Delimita on Commission except in a few states.
Elec ons in 499 out of 543 Parliamentary Cons tuencies
were held on the basis of delimita on report. The
elec ons were planned as five phased exercise with actual
polling being conducted on April 16, 23, 30 and May 7 &
13, 2009. The electorate strength jumped from 671
million (67.1 cr) in 2004 to 714 million (71.4 cr) in 2009
marking an increase of 43 million (4.3 cr) voters. The total
number of polling sta ons stood at 8,28,804 signifying an
increase of 1,41,402 over the previous Lok Sabha
elec ons in 2004.

●●●

Shortly after the results of the Fifteenth General
Elections had been declared, an unexpected trouble
erupted, which threatened to undermine the consensus
on the subject. Some political parties cast doubt on the
EVMs as unreliable. It was speculative whether those
CEC Navin Chawla at ECI headquarters parties or persons had expected a different outcome in

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