Kerala General Assembly Election 2021

SVEEP 2021

Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation program, better known as SVEEP, is the flagship program of the Election Commission of India for voter education, spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in India. SVEEP’s primary goal is to build a truly participative democracy in India by encouraging all eligible citizens to vote and make an informed decision during the elections.

During 2021, SVEEP in Pathanamthitta has begun to promote voter literacy in the district by holding the COVID protocol and allowing all eligible citizens to vote. Assistant Collector Chelsasini V IAS was in charge of the coordination of various activities of SVEEP in the district during Assembly Elections 2021. Initially the programme was started by enrolling college students to have a voter ID card so that they can make them eligible to vote. It was done with the help of Akshaya Centres in the district.

Volunteer activity in SVEEP started after the request from the Assistant Collector, to boost up the ongoing awareness campaigns. For this, various competitions were held in relation with Election such as Photography, Poster Designing, Cartoon, Troll making, and Documentary competitions. The posters revealing these competitions were made by the volunteers and were released in the Official Facebook page of the District Collector. A platform for clearing the doubts of the general public was also created by the volunteers in which people can post their questions through a link and their queries were answered through their email. A Friendly cricket match was also conducted as a part of SVEEP and the volunteers who participated in this, created an awareness among the people who gathered to witness the match.

A mascot for the election in the District was selected to promote the messages of Voting. A Great Indian Hornbill – named ‘Mittu’ was the mascot for 2021 elections. Mittu was brought to people in real life and conducted awareness programs in all the 5 assembly constituencies of the district. This was done with the help of the respective Taluk authorities and was coordinated by the Deputy Tahsildars in the taluks. A mock EVM and VVPAT machine was also presented during these programs in the field so that people can have pre-knowledge on how to vote on the polling day.

A scope of creating awareness through games was also considered which could reach more people. Snake and Ladder – the well known favorite of many has been adopted and manipulated to give the Do’s and Don’ts of Election process. This was done in both physical and online mode. A cycle rally was conducted for spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy. The rally was led by the Assistant Collector. It called for all eligible citizens to cast their vote wisely and do their part in the decision making process.

KERALA LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY ELECTION 2021

On 26^th February 2021, the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared the poll schedule for the Kerala Assembly Election 2021. Polling for 140 seats of Kerala assembly was decided to be conducted in a single phase on April 6^th 2021.

Absentee Voters – Videographers Duty

The Election Commission of India implemented a special postal ballot facility for Absentee voters, who have been given the facility of voting through postal ballot (PB) paper.

Absentee voters included :

(i) Senior citizens (above 80 years of age)

(ii) Persons with disability flagged in the electoral roll database

(iii) COVID 19 suspect or affected persons and

(iv) Persons employed in essential services (In consultation with the Central & State Govt., CEO provide the list of essential services and then Commission issues the Notification)

For the smooth conduction of postal voting for Absentee voters, CEO introduced a five-member team consisting of a polling officer, a polling assistant, a police officer, a videographer and a micro-observer went door to door to help these people cast their votes a week before voting day. On an average, each team covered up to 100 houses, visiting a maximum of 20 per day, depending on terrain and accessibility.

It was decided to appoint volunteers as videographers on the recommendation of the District Election Officer. DC Volunteers were assigned duty in Thiruvalla, Ranni and Adoor taluks.

From 30th March 2021 to April 4th 2021, around 100 volunteers worked along with election officials as videographers for the conduction of Absentee Voter’s Postal Vote.

Webcasting in 716 Election Booths

For the first time, the Election Commission arranged webcasting in all the polling stationsOF all districts in the state for the Kerala General Assembly Election 2021. As per the direction of Election Commission of India, it was instructed to arrange live webcasting at least in 50% of the polling stations in connection with the General Election to Kerala Legislative Assembly 2021. The Chief Election Commission has approved live webcasting in 716 polling stations of Pathanamthitta district.

Polling stations, including the ones tagged as critical and vulnerable, were placed under surveillance as per the Election Commission norms. Live feed from these booths was made available to the Returning Officers, District Collectors/District Election Officers and the Central Control Room at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)

It was evident that Webcasts from more than half the polling stations in the district helped cut down election-related malpractices on polling day 6^th April 2021. In ensuring fair elections, volunteers played a vital role with the administration.

A team of 150+ volunteers were involved in monitoring and webcasting the footage from polling booths. The infrastructure for the extensive coverage was assiduously put together over the past several months by the IT officials, Election officials and Volunteers.

The Kerala State Information Technology Mission (IT Mission) on Monday 5^th April 2021 conducted the successful trial of webcasting by linking 716 selected polling booths of Pathanamthitta District. The service of nearly 1,000 persons, including Akshaya entrepreneurs, control room staff, IT experts and volunteers were utilised to operate the facility during the election on polling day. High-resolution webcams were connected to the high-speed Fibre to the Home (FTTH) network to ensure steady transmission of visuals from all the spots. The webcasting software was made by the KELTRON and IT Mission. Volunteers were the ones who coordinated the web streaming in all the selected polling booths. They were arranged and positioned by using their webcams and systems to cover the full view of the polling area. It helped in monitoring and controlling the polling stations from the district control room. The district-level control room functioned at the District Collectorate for the election authorities including general observers.

DC Volunteers were also assigned for work in the District Control Room at Collectorate. From morning 5.00am to Night 7.00pm, a continuous stretch of work was done on the day by all officials, volunteers and they all were well appreciated by the District Election Officer and Chief Election Officer.