NEW DELHI, JULY 21: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday criticised the Congress and the Left parties for opposing the right of proxy voting for the nearly 40 lakh personnel in the Defence and paramilitary forces.The Election Commission had at meetings with political parties in December 1997, in May last year and yet again in June this year, suggested replacing the postal ballot for Service electors with proxy vote. The Law Minister had also written to all political parties to consider and accept the EC suggestion.But the Congress and the Left parties opposed it on the ground that it could be taken up at the time of bringing reforms to the Electoral Reforms Law, BJP's chief whip in Rajya Sabha said.Experience has shown that the postal ballot system of casting votes has not worked satisfactorily. The campaign period being only 14 days, the logistic constraints of despatching postal ballots and receiving them back before counting has resulted in a significant number of postal ballot papers issued not reaching in time. Thus a large percentage of Service voters do not get actually an opportunity to cast their votes, Malhotra quota the EC to have said.Malhotra said the Congress opposition to proxy vote for the armed forces and paramilitary personnel was a strange way of expressing solidarity and support for the men and officers who are posted in far-flung areas to safeguard our frontiers and fight intruders and insurgents.Had there been a consensus among all political parties on the issue, an Ordinance providing for the right of proxy voting could have been issued. This practice had been in existence in the United Kingdom and some other countries and there had been no complaints, he claimed.
