POLL

Appointment of Polling Agents _ Identification (dt. 02.04.1996).
Secretariat of the Election Commission of India

Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road, New Delhi - 110 001. No. 576/11/94/J.S-II Vol. I Dated: 16th December, 1994.

The Chief Electoral Officer of all States and Union Territories
_____________________________________________________________________

Subject :- Providing the Presiding Officers with a set of specimen signatures of candidates and their Election Agents - Directions.

1. I am directed to state that Section46 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 read with rule 13 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 provides that at every election each candidate or his election agent can appoint one polling agent and two relief polling agents at each polling station. However, only one polling agent of a candidate should be allowed inside the polling station at any given time. Every polling agent must produce before the Presiding Officer of the polling station the appointment letter in Form 10 appended to the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 by which the candidate or his election agent has appointed him.

2. However, the Presiding Officer of a polling station is not in a position to verify the signature of the candidate or his election agent as given in appointment letter in Form 10 presented to him by the polling agent as he will not be having the specimen signatures of the candidates or their election agents. This may result sometimes in presentation of spurious Form 10 by unscrupulous persons with the purported/forged signatures.

3. In order to prevent any such malpractices and unscrupulous methods at the polling stations, the commission have devised a Format for obtaining and circulating the specimen, signatures of the candidates and their election agents, which is forwarded herewith.

4. A copy of the Format may be furnished to all Returning Officers in your State/Union Territory with the direction that the specimen signatures of all the contesting them on the Format and after taking photocopies thereof in sufficient numbers, supply to each Presiding Officer, Observers of the Commission ,Zonal Magistrates and Sector Magistrates, etc., in the constituency.

5. Under the law, it is not obligatory on the part of the candidates to appoint an election agent. Therefore, if any of the candidates has not appointed any election agent, then in the column meant for the signature of the election agent, the words "No Election Agent appointed" may be recorded in the Format. The candidates are further at liberty to revoke the appointment of an election agent and to appoint another person as the election agent. If such a change in the appointment is made at the last moment when the Presiding Officers have already been supplied with the copy of the Format containing the specimen signatures as originally furnished by the contesting candidate, then it shall be the responsibility of the candidate concerned to supply a copy of Form 9 revoking the appointment of the election agent and a copy of Form 8 appointing the new election agent to each Presiding Officer.

6. The Commission hereby further directs that if any candidate and/or his election agent refuse(s) to affix specimen signature on the Format, they may be informed that the Presiding Officer may not entertain any appointment letter in Form 10 from the polling agents appointed by them if the Presiding Officer is in reasonable doubt as to the genuineness of the signature of the candidate or his election agent whose specimen signature is not available in the prescribed Format.

7. This procedure shall be followed at every election to be announced from now onwards without fail. A copy of these instructions translated into regional languages be supplied to each person at the time of filing of nominations. A suitable Press Note shall also be issued at the time of each election.

8. Copies of these instructions may also be forwarded to all the political parties in the State/Union Territory.

9. Receipt of this letter with its enclosures shall be acknowledged immediately.



BACK TO INDEX I PREVIOUS PAGE I NEXT PAGE I NEXT DOCUMENT I BACK TO SEARCH I