The Kerala High Court has directed the Election Commission of India and the State Chief Electoral Officer to take all possible steps to ensure that a voter casts only one vote and that double entry voters are not allowed to cast vote in more than one place in the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
Justice Shoba Annamma Eapen passed the order recently while disposing of writ petitions filed by Varkala Kahar and K. Praveen Kumar, chief election agents of Adoor Prakash and Shafi Parambil, the United Democratic Front candidates in the Attingal and Vadakara Lok Sabha constituencies respectively, seeking a directive to ensure that the double entry voters are not allowed to cast their votes in more than one place in Attingal and deploy sufficient Central security forces to ensure free and fair elections in Vadakara.
The court observed that in a constitutional democracy, “the government is a government of the people, by the people and for the people and each of us has a participatory role in electing the government. On the day of election, the vote that each citizen casts, counts as of the same value. So, our Constitution and our law provide for one citizen, one vote and one value. That is the great power of our nation as a constitutional democracy”.
Counsel for the Election Commission Deepu Lal Mohan submitted that all precautionary measures were being taken to ensure the free and fair conduct of the election in the State and also to ensure the sanctity of the electoral roll. He also submitted that no person would be allowed to cast unauthorised votes in the ensuing election.
