handbook for presiding officers - Chief Electoral Officer, Govt. of Sikkim

alongwith their security personnel nor their lives can be put to risk by allowing
them to enter the polling station without any security cover. As per standing
instructions, the Security personnel accompanying Ministers or political
functionaries, who enter the polling station in their capacity as candidates for
elections, shall not be allowed entry inside the polling station. They can wait
standing at the door of the polling station, but shall not, in any circumstances
do any act amounting to interfere in the conduct of poll.
1.6 Entry of persons should be strictly regulated as detailed above, otherwise, the
smooth and orderly conduct of poll may be vitiated. You should allow only
three or four electors to enter the polling station at a time.
1.7 If you have a reasonable doubt about the presence of any person, about
whose credentials you have a reasonable suspicion, in the polling booth, you
can have him searched, if necessary, even though the person concerned may
be in possession of a valid authority letter to enter the polling booth.
1.8 In the performance of your duties, you are only bound by the instructions of
the Election Commission. You are not to take orders from or show any favour
to your official superiors or political leaders including Ministers. Even in the
matter of requests for entry into the polling booth from these, you should allow
them only if they are in possession of a valid authority letter issued by the
Election Commission.
1.9 A village officer or other officer or a woman attendant, who has been
employed by you for helping you in the identification of electors or to assist
you otherwise in taking the poll, should normally, be seated outside the
entrance of the polling station. He/she should be admitted into the polling
station only when he/she is required for identification of a particular elector or
for assisting you for a particular purpose in connection with the taking of the
poll. No one inside the polling station should be allowed to influence or try to
influence the electors by words or gestures to vote in a particular way.
2. CPF personnel to keep a watch on the proceedings in the polling station
It is brought to your notice that the CPF personnel, as per the existing
practice, are deployed as static force outside the polling stations. In
pursuance to the directions given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in its order
no.9228 of 2003 (Janak Singh Vs. Ram Das Rai and others) dated
11.01.2005, the Commission has directed that in the polling stations with
CPF coverage, one CPF Jawan from the CPF party posted at the polling
station will be stationed at the entrance of the polling station so that he can
keep a watch on the proceedings that are going on inside the polling station,
particularly, to ensure that no unauthorized person enters inside the polling
station and/or no irregularity is committed either by the polling staff or
outsiders in the poll process. However, it should be ensured that this CPF
personnel is not located inside the polling station.
The CPF Jawan posted at the entrance of the polling stations shall keep a
watch specifically on the following: -
(vii) No unauthorized person is present inside the polling station at any time
during the poll.