BYE-ELECTIONS IN TAMIL NADU AFTER LOK SABHA ELECTIONS, 2009 Bye-elections to the Assembly Constituencies of Bargur, Thondamuthur, Cumbum, Ilayangudy and Srivaikuntam Five vacancies arose in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly due to the resignation / death of member as detailed below:- Sl. No. and Name of AC Details of Resignation / Date from No. Death of member which vacancy arose 1 197.Ilayangudi R.S. Rajakannappan 25.2.2009 (resigned) (DMK) 2 103.Thondamuthur M. Kannappan (resigned) 25.3.2009 (MDMK) 3 134.Cumbum N. Ramakrishnan 28.3.2009 (resigned) (MDMK) 4 78.Bargur Dr. M. Thambidurai 19.5.2009 (resigned) (ADMK) 5 226.Srivaikuntam D. Selvaraj (death) (INC) 5.7.2009 Re-alignment of Electoral Rolls Electoral Rolls for the above five ACs were re-aligned for the bye-elections using the correlation statement and software devised for the purpose with reference to the Assembly Constituency area prior to delimitation. The Election Commission announced on 16.7.2009 the poll schedule for the bye-elections to TNLA from the above five ACs as set out below: Filing of nominations and issue of 22.07.2009 (Wednesday) Notification Last date for making nominations 29-07-2009 (Wednesday) Scrutiny of Nominations 30-07-2009 (Thursday) Last date for withdrawal of candidature8- 01-08-2009 (Saturday) Date of poll 18-08-2009 (Tuesday) Counting of votes 21-08-2009 (Friday) Date before which election shall be 23-08-2009 (Sunday) completed 2 Election Process The Model Code of Conduct came into force w.e.f. 16.7.2009, viz. date of announcement of the poll schedule for the bye-elections in the districts of Sivaganga, Coimbatore, Theni, Krishnagiri, Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram. The filing of nominations commenced from 22.7.2009. Totally 120 nominations were filed. On the day of scrutiny (30.7.2009), 53 nominations were rejected and there were 67 valid nominations. Re-scrutiny- Thiru S. Raja, an independent candidate filed his nomination to the bye-election to TNLA from 226.Srivaikuntam AC on 29.7.2009. On the day of scrutiny (30.7.2009), his nomination paper was rejected by the R.O. for the reason that the name of the candidate did not find place in the relevant electoral roll. Thiru. S. Elango, an independent candidate, filed his nomination to the bye-election to TNLA from 78.Bargur AC on 29.7.2009. On the day of scrutiny (30.7.2009), his nomination paper was rejected by the R.O. for the reason that the individual had not submitted the certified copy of the voters list from his native constituency (Tiruvarur). Thiru. V. Chandran, a candidate sponsored by Deseeya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) filed his nomination to the bye-election to TNLA from 78.Bargur AC on 27.7.2009. On the day of scrutiny (30.7.2009), his nomination paper was rejected by the R.O. for the reason that the individual had not submitted Form-A either along with 3 his nomination paper or on the last date for making nomination and even for considering him as an independent candidate, the Part No. and Serial No. of his ten proposers were found to be not correct. The ECI ordered re-scrutiny of the nominations of the above three persons. Accordingly, the nominations of the above three persons were taken up for re-scrutiny and the R.O. accepted their nominations. Since, V. Chandran has not submitted Form-A, he was considered as an independent candidate. Consequent on the re-scrutiny and acceptance of the above three nominations, the number of valid nominations was 70. On the last date of withdrawal of candidature totally 3 candidates withdrew their candidatures. As such there were 67 candidates left in the fray. Observers- The ECI appointed initially five Observers to monitor the bye-elections in the above five ACs. The Commission later appointed additionally five Observers for the above bye-elections out of which the additional Observer for Thondamuthur AC was deployed to some AC for a bye-election in U.P. Apart from this, the ECI directed deployment of Thiru K. Rajaraman, I.A.S., a senior officer borne on Tamil Nadu cadre as an additional officer in the 134.Cumbum AC to oversee the election work in that constituency. Use of Technology in Elections – New initiatives In this era of Information Technology, it is quite natural that the election processes are also technology-driven. Two new initiatives were taken on a large scale during all the bye-elections conducted in this 4 State after the Lok Sabha Elections 2009; in all the Polling Stations and the other was the SMS based Poll Management System. Laptops were mobilized from the District Government Offices (mostly school teachers / students of Engineering were utilized as operators and the BSNL provided connectivity. The fact that the Polling Officers, Booth Agents and Voters knew that they would be observed live and that the proceedings were being recorded made them behave properly- ‘Hawthorn effect’. A Control Room was set up in the Chief Electoral Officer’s Office with a team of three officers dedicated for each Assembly Constituency. Five 42” Plasma TV sets were installed to watch the entire proceedings live. The officers in the Control Room selected the Polling Stations at random and watched the proceedings. If anything amiss was noticed by the team, they would contact the Booth Level Officer to set right the mistake immediately. During the bye-elections in Tamil Nadu following the Tripura model, the updates on the various milestones were got on Pre-poll day and the poll day through the SMS based poll Management System. Each Polling Station had a dedicated BLO with a cell phone (GSM Cell) to send messages at regular intervals on a particular 5 digit number. These messages were formatted and were directly pooled in the central server located in the CEO’s office at NIC, Secretariat. BSNL provided network coverage to the Polling Stations in the ACs. 5 As a result of the above system, it was possible to get the details of votes polled in all the Polling Stations on an hourly basis from 8 A.M. and on half hourly basis from 3 P.M. on the poll day. The poll went off peacefully and without any major incident. Counting- Counting was taken up at 8.00 a.m. on 21.8.2009 and the final results were declared around 1.00 p.m. The votes polled by the winning / runner-up candidates are given below. No. & Name of the Winning candidate Votes Runner-up Votes AC and Party polled candidate and polled Party 78.Bargur K.R.K.Narasimman, 89,481 V.Chandran (IND) 30,378 (DMK) 103.Thondamuthur M.N.Kandaswamy 1,12,350 K.Thangavelu 40,863 (INC) (DMDK) 134.Cumbum N.Ramakrishnan 81,515 R.Arunkumar 24,142 (DMK) (DMDK) 197.Ilayangudi S.Mathiarasan 61,084 Alagu 19,628 (DMK) Balakrishnan (DMDK) 226.Srivaikuntam M.B.Sudalaiyandi 53,827 M.Soundarapandi 22,468 (INC) (DMDK) Out of the five seats, DMK won three seats and INC two seats. The Declaration of Result in Form-21D received from the ROs concerned was published in an extra-ordinary issue of Tamil Nadu Government Gazette dated: 22.8.2009 and copies forwarded to the ECI. 6 BYE ELECTIONS TO TNLA FROM 225.TIRUCHENDUR & 51.VANDAVASI (SC) ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCIES. Consequent on the resignation of Thiru. Anitha R. Radhakrishnanan, sitting member elected to TNLA from 225.Tiruchendur AC, a vacancy arose in the above AC with effect from 31-7-2009. Further, on the death of Thiru S.P. Jayaraman sitting member elected to TNLA from 51.Vandavasi (SC) AC, another vacancy arose with effect from 2-11-2009. 2. The ECI announced the poll schedule as follows to fill up the two vacancies: Filing of nominations and issue of 25.11.2009 (Wednesday) Notification Last date for making nominations 2.12.2009 (Wednesday) Scrutiny of Nominations 3.12.2009 (Thursday) Last date for withdrawal of 5.12.2009 (Saturday) candidature8-04- Date of poll 19.12.2009 (Saturday) Counting of votes 23.12.2009 (Wednesday) Date before which election shall be 31.12.2009 (Thursday) completed. 3. Out of 53 candidates who filed nominations filed for the 2 bye-elections, the nominations of 11 candidates were rejected and 3 candidates withdrew their candidature. As such there were 39 contesting candidates in the fray [14 for 51.Vandavasi (SC) AC and 25 for 225.Tiruchendur AC). [ 4. During the process of bye-elections, complaints were received relating to Model Code of Conduct and these were forwarded to the 7 DEOs and the Police officers concerned. For peaceful conduct of bye-elections, 5 coys of CRPF and 6 coys of KSR Police (totally 11 coys) were deployed. Two Election Observers were deployed for each A.C. 5. The poll for 51.Vandavasi (SC) A.C and 225.Tiruchendur A.C on 19th December, 2009 was by and large peaceful. There were a few complaints pertaining to 225.Tiruchendur A.C. The complaints received pertaining to 51.Vandavasi (SC) A.C on phone were referred to the Collector or the IG / DIG / SP for immediate action. In some cases, the Booth Level Officers or / and the Zonal Officers were contacted using the Communication Plan which had been prepared earlier to ascertain the veracity of the allegations and take remedial action in cases of irregularities. The SMS based system of monitoring of poll wherein the percentage of voters’ turn out every one hour till 3 pm and every half an hour after 3 pm could be known, proved to be useful.