In possibly the first time, over 1000 corporate firms in Gujarat which will go to polls later this year will publicly shame those employees who would not vote in the upcoming elections.
These companies have signed agreements with the Election Commission to monitor “electoral participation of their workforce” and publish names of those who don’t vote on their websites or office notice boards, Indian Express reported.
We signed 233 MoUs that will help us enforce the guidelines of the Election Commission. For the first time in Gujarat, we will be monitoring the electoral participation of the workforce belonging to 1,017 industrial units,” Gujarat Chief Electoral Office P Bharathi said.
The election schedule for Gujarat has not been announced yet.
The EC had asked central and state government departments, public sector units and corporate entities with 500-plus employees to appoint nodal officers to identify employees who avail leave on polling day but don’t vote, as per a report by Indian Express.
“In order to expand our reach, we decided to monitor industries employing 100 or more workers in Gujarat. The human resources officials in these units have been appointed as nodal officers. They will prepare a list of employees who don’t vote and publish it on their websites or notice boards,” said Bharathi.
Every registered voter employed in any business, trade, industrial undertaking or any other establishment and entitled to vote in a Parliament or Assembly election has to be granted a paid holiday for the purpose, according to Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The Act also said that an employer shall be punishable with fine, which may extend to Rs 500.
An EC official had said that poll panel will organise special voter awareness and employers will be requested to send workers who skip voting.
Gujarat reported a voter turnout of 69 per cent in 2017 Assembly elections and 64 per cent in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
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