Can EC deviate from its responsibilities?

The 2019 Presidential Election is more significant than previous ones in several areas like the economy, defence, social welfare and constitutional matters. These have been discussed and debated sufficiently.

A few days back we noticed problems within polling stations when the EC Chairman spoke of the arrangement of desks or tables, and placing screens for where the people mark their ballot papers. He said due to the difficulty of finding adequately sized tables or desks in most schools that function as polling stations, voters will have to place the ballot paper in a suitable manner and mark their vote as the paper cannot be placed straight due to lack of space from screens placed to avoid exposure while marking ballot papers.

But can the EC deviate from their responsibilities citing the size of school desks and the inability to extend the screened area for marking ballot papers? The difficulty voters will face when placing their ballot paper at full length on the desk or table will cause them inconveniences when choosing the symbol of their preferred candidate. And this could affect the position of candidates in the final result.

These factors have to be considered very seriously as placing one’s vote against a wrong symbol would lead to a distorted final result - and would be detrimental in a closely contested final result. Spending a few more million rupees would have been worthier than leaving room for the distortion of the final result in an important poll.

N.S. Ranepura Kadawatha