27 May 2024 09:10 am Views - 160
By Kelum Bandara
Further relevance of marking a voter’s finger with indelible ink is now questioned as the production of a valid identity card for casting ballots is mandatory.
Indelible ink leaves a colour on a voter’s finger, and it cannot be erased. It has been introduced to avoid the mischief of multiple voting.
Former Election Commission’s Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya who commented on this matter said its validity is now questioned since multiple voting by a single voter is now practically impossible with the mandatory requirement of producing a valid identity card.
He said a separate official is assigned to mark voter’s finger at every polling station, and money spent on the whole process can be saved if the current requirement is scrapped.
However, he said the election authorities, sometimes, find it too difficult to have a check on multiple voting in polling stations with a large number of registered votes.
“If it is a polling station with less than 1,000 votes, we can scrap it. In polling stations with more voters, polling queues move fast. Then it is difficult to monitor voters for multiple voting without indelible ink,” he said. Asked for a comment, the current chairman of the Election Commission R. M. A. L. Ratnayake said though it is possible to do away with indelible ink, it cannot be done this time since legal amendments are not in effect. “We will use indelible ink at the elections pending this year,” he said.