Glitches in assisting visually impaired voters at Chandor

Team Herald

MARGAO: Presiding officers at the elections on Tuesday adopted different yardsticks for the same matter depending on who was presiding. Some presiding officers insisted on the Elector’s Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) as proof till some voters objected and referred to the other documents recommended by the ECI.

There were some glitches in helping the visually impaired voters also as some presiding officers said none of the polling staff would be able to assist the voter who had to cast his or her vote individually without assistance from a family member.

At a polling both in Chandor where this was done, the presiding officer had to back down and allow the family member to assist the visually impaired when the voter’s family member threatened to lodge a complaint against the presiding officer for not allowing a citizen to exercise her franchise.

Registering of polling agents was another area where there were different yardsticks adopted. One presiding officer at Macasana refused to register a person as a polling agent only because he was not a registered voter in that particular part but was a registered voter elsewhere though in the same village.