Making it a free and fair poll

Phantom voters. How do you stop them from influencing the outcome of an election?

In Malaysia, at every by-election, or even the general election, a very common complaint lodged by the opposition is the presence of phantom voters to help swing the count for the ruling party.

The Election Commission here has dismissed such claims, adding that these are legitimate voters who have failed to change their addresses.

While we here still continue to fight for proper electoral reforms, lets see how the Indian election commission conducts an election - in this case the Madurai West assembly constituency by-election on June 26.

A small report in the web today quoted Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta as saying that an enquiry has been ordered into claims of rampant money politics. If such claims are found to be founded, the election could be postponed.

But more interestingly, especially in the matter of phantom voters, the electoral officer has ruled that all outsiders would be asked to move out of the constituency 48 hours prior to the elections.

Wow! This is excellent. This means only registered voters will be in the constituency to vote. No busloads of outside party loyalists and supporters like what happens very often here!

Read more on how the Indian election authorities want to make the Madurai by-election a free and fair poll here and here.