Page 121 - Leap of Faith Vol - 2

Vision for a New Century Chapter 5

A new style of marking the indelible ink on a voter's finger rationalising the number of polling stations for ease of
was started from the elections to the Legislative voting. For the General Elections, 2009 as many as 12,901 of
Assemblies in five states/UT – Assam, Kerala, Pondicherry the new polling stations were set up for villages that had
(now Puducherry), Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in April less than 300 electors with a view to address the concerns
and May, 2006. The ink was now to be applied as a line of distance, geographical barrier, threat and intimidation.
running from the top of the nail to the bottom of the first Vulnerability mapping was undertaken in all constituencies.
joint of the left forefinger. Previously, since 1952, the ink
N. Gopalaswami had a tenure of more than a thousand
had been applied as a dot on the left forefinger's nail.
days as Chief Election Commissioner, longer than anybody
N. Gopalaswami took over as the 15 Chief Election in post-Gill period. While he led the Election Commission
Commissioner of India on June 30, 2006. Preparation of into the Fifteenth General Elections, his tenure came to an
photo electoral rolls, as a measure to confirm the identity of end on April 20, 2009 - a few days after the first phase of
the voters, was prioritised during his tenure. By the time of the elections. On April 21, 2009 Navin B. Chawla assumed
th
Lok Sabha Elections 2009, photographs of 82 percent of charge as the 16 Chief Election Commissioner. He steered
electors had been printed on the electoral rolls, and 522 out the Election Commission through the remaining phases of
of 543 Parliamentary Constituencies availed its benefit. the elections.
During the year 2008-09, there was an emphasis on
The Fi eenth General Elec ons, 2009 were held on 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 use of EVMs. Some political parties cast doubt on
CEC Navin Chawla at ECI headquarters the EVMs as unreliable. It was speculative whether those

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