Lok Sabha polls | Senior citizens over 85 and the disabled vote from home in T.N.

April 09, 2024 12:16 am | Updated 12:26 pm IST - CHENNAI

Several senior citizens aged above 85 and persons with disabilities (PwDs) in Chennai got a chance to exercise their franchise through postal ballots on Monday, ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

With the Election Commission of India (ECI) extending the ‘vote-from-home’ facility to senior citizens and persons with more than 40% disability, teams of polling officials accompanied by a videographer and a security personnel have started visiting the voters’ houses and supervising the postal ballot process.

The move has been welcomed by the elderly who otherwise had to face the challenge of visiting the polling booth on April 19 or missing their chance to vote. V. Seshan, 87, a resident of Kodambakkam, said this was the second time that he was casting his vote through postal ballot. “I was instructed to tick my choice within the confines of the given box. I was able to maintain secrecy of my voting. My 84-year-old wife, Kalyani, missed the chance this time. She had cast her vote through the postal ballot during previous Assembly election,” he said.

Chelladurai, 88, of Vadapalani, said the seamless procedure helped elderly people like him take part in the election process despite the inconvenience of being confined to home.

The officials also collected postal ballot from former State Minister Arcot N. Veerasamy, 92, in Chennai on Monday. Nearly 14.44 lakh voters have been identified in the age group above 80 across the State.

In Chennai alone, there are 63,751 electors aged above 85 years and about 10,370 PwDs have been identified. On Monday, about 4,000 electors exercised their franchise when the process kickstarted in the city. However, a section of senior citizens are yet to receive their postal ballots and felt the age limit ought to be relaxed to 80 years.

S.M. Chellaswami, treasurer of the Tamil Nadu Elders’ Welfare Association, said while some of them did not apply for the facility in order to be able to cast their vote in person on polling day, measures should be taken to include those aged 80 for the next Assembly elections.

Smitha Sadasivan and Karthik, members, Disability Rights Alliance, who have applied for postal ballot are waiting for their turn to use the ‘vote-from-home’ facility. “I have been following up with the officials, and my name has been added recently. I hope I’ll get my turn to vote,” Mr. Karthik said.