Preparations for extending proxy voting facility to the armed forces have hit a roadblock with the Election Commission communicating that wives of service personnel will not be eligible to vote by proxy. They will have to depend on the archaic postal ballot.The EC, in a letter issued for the revision of the last part of the electoral roll, has specified that the facilities of voting through proxy will be extended only to personnel serving in the armed forces, while their wives have been excluded.It is interesting to note that wives of these personnel were given the same rights till now and were included in the last part of the electoral roll, making them eligible to cast their vote through the postal ballot. As the EC letter dated December 15, 2003 states, ‘‘Wife of a service voter. ordinarily residing with him is also eligible to be registered in the last part of the electoral roll as an elector’’.However, when it comes to granting the facility for proxy voting, the Commission puts armed forces personnel in a separate category called ‘classified service voters’. ‘‘Service voters, of the armed forces and belonging to a force to which the Army Act applies, have been extended the facility to exercise option to vote either through proxy or postal ballot.’’The same rule is not applied for wives apparently because they do not fall in the category of classified service voters, even though they may reside with them. ‘‘The wives of the aforesaid service voters, though enrolled in the last part of the roll, are not entitled to vote through proxy. They can vote only through postal ballot paper, as before.’’This contradiction, according to Election Commission sources, is not in the letter as the amendment permitting proxy voting itself makes it clear that the facility will be extended only to armed forces personnel. The amendment, they add, does not include wives of these personnel.Given that the Government took up the issue of proxy voting on grounds that the million-strong armed forces of the country missed out on casting their votes because of their duties on the border, the omission of wives residing with these personnel in the final implementation has gone unnoticed.The other complication which has arisen out of this is whether spouses of women service personnel can be included in the last part of the electoral roll. While wives can continue to vote through the postal ballot, the Election Commission is silent on whether this right can be passed on to spouses residing with women personnel.This apart, the Election Commission has made it clear that even diplomats and police personnel on deputation to other states will not be granted the facility of proxy voting. They will have to still depend on the postal ballot.
