Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Bogus voting: intervention of President sought

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI JUNE 4. A delegation of DMK and PMK members of Parliament today met the President, K.R. Narayanan, and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention for the appointment of an inquiry commission to probe the alleged large-scale misuse of office and electoral offences during the recent byelections in Tamil Nadu.

The delegation led by C. Kuppusami of the DMK and E. Ponnuswamy of the PMK brought to the President's notice the "use in large numbers" of bogus community certificates and ration cards by the ruling AIADMK for casting votes. The entire electoral process had become a "mockery" due to, what they alleged, large-scale misuse of official machinery. "It was really unfortunate that the Tamil Nadu Government had not so far initiated any action against the patent forgery of community certificates and ration cards which were vital documents," the memorandum said.

The presiding officers of the polling booths were not allowed by AIADMK booth agents to verify the certificates brought by bogus voters, it said.

The City Police Commissioner, K. Vijayakumar, and his subordinates were turning a Nelson's eye to the electoral offences, violence and booth capturing done in their presence by AIADMK activists. No action was taken on the complaints of assault on the DMK party candidate and his chief agent on the polling date in Saidapet, it said.

The memorandum said that even Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, who was accused of an authoritarian rule, would not have stooped to this level.

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