Maharashtra civic polls: Confusion over voting ‘four times’ as corporations step up awareness on panel system
Accustomed to voting for a single candidate in state and parliamentary elections, several voters have expressed confusion over the panel system that will be implemented this time in 28 of the 29 municipal corporations going to polls on January 15.
With municipal corporations outside Mumbai set to vote under the panel system, many voters like Farhan Khan, a first-time voter from Navi Mumbai, are grappling with the idea of casting multiple votes in the upcoming civic polls scheduled for January 15. Khan is not alone. Accustomed to voting for a single candidate in state and parliamentary elections, several voters have expressed confusion over the panel system that will be implemented this time in 28 of the 29 municipal corporations going to polls on January 15. Under this system, voters are required to vote for a panel of corporators, rather than just one representative.
While the confusion is understandable in Navi Mumbai, where the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation will adopt the four-member panel system for the first time, young voters in other civic bodies such as the Thane Municipal Corporation are also struggling to grasp the concept. Unlike the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, where voters elect one corporator per ward, the panel system requires voters to select between three and five corporators spread across multiple wards.
Jagdish More, Assistant Commissioner, State Election Commission, said, “In some corporations like the NMMC, panel systems will be voted in for the first time and the corporations are taking efforts to educate people about how the system works.”
NMMC Deputy Commissioner Dr Ajay Gadade, who is overseeing the elections, said, “Since this is the first time a panel will be voted in, we have so far held 300 street plays across Navi Mumbai showing how voting is to be done for the panel. We have put out videos in three languages displaying how to vote and have reached out to nearly 20,000 students explaining the procedure to them. Apart from that there are digital panels across the city for the same.” The NMMC has 28 wards, of which 27 are four-member wards, while one is a three-member ward.
Apart from Navi Mumbai, civic bodies such as the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation and Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation had followed the one candidate per ward system in the previous elections. Another official said, “Generally one knows about ‘one person one vote’ that is followed in all elections. When suddenly people are told that they have to vote four times for a panel they tend to get confused.”
The official added that during panel voting in Pune in 2017, confusion was widespread, with some voters attempting to press the same button on the EVM four times. “At times the police officials had to reach out and explain that the person had to choose four people on the four different EVMs that were placed there,” the official said.
In June last year, the Urban Development Department issued a notification stating that 28 of the 29 municipal corporations, excluding Mumbai, would follow a four-member ward system. The notification stated that while candidates would file nominations from a single ward, they would be allowed to campaign across a group of wards and undertake development work in all of them. Correspondingly, voters from each ward in the group would be able to vote for candidates across all four wards.
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The bill proposing the four-member ward system was passed by the state legislative assembly in March 2024. It states that each ward of a municipal corporation shall elect, as far as possible, four councillors, but not fewer than three or more than five. A three-member ward system was first introduced in 2001 by then Chief Minister late Vilasrao Deshmukh and has since been scrapped and reintroduced multiple times with modifications.
Mohamed Thaver is a highly specialized journalist with the Expertise and Authority required to report on complex law enforcement and legal issues. With a career dedicated to the crime beat for over a decade, his work provides readers with informed and trustworthy insights into Maharashtra's security and justice systems.
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