Haryana joint chief electoral officer Inder Jeet on Friday said that only those voters will be allowed to cast their vote, whose name will be there in the voters' list.
“If a voter's name is in the voter's list, but he does not have an EPIC, he can cast his vote by showing 11 alternative identification cards specified by the Election Commission. If name of any voter is not in the voters list and he shows his Aadhaar Card or Voter card at the polling booth, then he will not be allowed to cast his vote,” he said.
Inder Jeet said that some messages are being circulated on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, which are absolutely false and misleading.
Giving detailed information on the claims of viral messages on social media, he said that the Representation of People Act, 1950 and the Representation of People Act, 1951, both Acts does not contain Section 49A, which is being claimed in the viral messages. He said that Section 49A is in the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, which reflects the design of Electronic Voting Machine.
He said that identity of voters can be challenged under Section 49J of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. As per rules, when a person comes to vote on polling booth and if polling agent has any doubt about that voter, then he can challenge the voter's identity. For this, the polling agent will have to first deposit Rs 2 in cash with the presiding officer. After checking, if the claim of the polling agent is found to be true, then the person will be stopped from voting and if the claim is found wrong then the person will be allowed to vote and the cash deposited by the polling agent will be forfeited, the joint chief electoral officer said.
He further said that what has been said in the context of Tender Votes in viral messages is false.
He said that the Tender Vote has been defined under Section 49P of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. According to the rule, if a person comes to vote at the polling booth, but he comes to know that his someone has already cast vote on his name, in that case, the presiding officer will ask the person claiming to be voter questions related to his identity and asks him to prove his identity. The person will be allowed to vote after the Presiding Officer is satisfied with the reply and identity given by that person. The person will be given a tender ballot paper to cast vote. He said that in such a situation, the vote would not be cast through EVM machine, only ballot paper will be used to cast the vote.
Inder Jeet said that the viral message also says that if more than 14 percent tender votes are recorded on a polling booth, then that re-polling will be conducted on that polling booth. This thing is completely wrong. Nowadays, false and wrong messages are being made viral on social media by some antisocial elements to mislead people, he added.