Karnataka: State Election Commission For GBA Elections With Ballot Papers
Pointing to the provision of the Greater Bengaluru Authority, Commissioner of State Election Commission G.S. Sangreshi said, at a press conference in Bengaluru, “Why not use the Act and conduct elections with ballot papers?”
BENGALURU: The State Election Commission (SEC) is all set to conduct the ensuing elections to 5 City Corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) with ballot papers taking into consideration a provision in the GBA Act which allows use of ballot papers in its elections. The Supreme Court ordered for the conduct of elections to GBA within June this year.
It may be recalled here that the Karnataka cabinet meeting in September previous year decided to recommend to the State Election Commission to conduct elections with ballot papers and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on the cabinet decision to conduct elections with ballot papers stated the use of ballot papers or EVMs in elections was a decision taken by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka.
Pointing to the provision of the Greater Bengaluru Authority, Commissioner of State Election Commission G.S. Sangreshi said, at a press conference in Bengaluru, “Why not use the Act and conduct elections with ballot papers?”
The Commissioner also drew the attention to the Supreme Court order over use of electronic voting machines in elections. Sangreshi said the Supreme Court upheld use of EVMs in voting and also had not stated “not to use ballot papers either in elections.”
Continuing, he said, “There are no laws which state against the use of ballot papers in elections.” According to the State Election Commissioner, “Both EVMs and ballot papers are not faulty (over apprehensions of malpractices).” Sangreshi said “Use of ballot papers has a long history in the conduct of elections.”
Meanwhile, Sangreshi said the ward-wise draft electoral rolls of the 5 City Corporations include as many as 8, 891, 411 voters in a total of 369 wards. The draft electoral rolls have been prepared with October 1, 2025 as the qualifying date. The rolls include 45, 69, 193 male voters and 43, 20, 583 female voters. There are about 1,635 other voters.
He said the disposal of claims and objections will be carried out from February 4 to 18 and the final electoral rolls will be published on March 16.
