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

ecording his/her vote on the Ballot Unit of the voting machine in any
circumstances.
8.3 Neither the Chief Electoral Officer nor the Returning Officer is empowered to
authorise any person who is not an elector or who is not required to assist you
in taking the poll, to enter a polling station. Any such person, including
publicity officials of the State Government, should not be allowed inside
a polling station without a letter of authority from the Commission.
9. Facilities to Observers appointed by Commission
9.1 The Commission is now generally appointing its observers at elections. They
are statutory authorities appointed by the Commission under Section 20 B of
the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
a) 9.2 During the day of poll, an observer might visit your polling
station. It is quite possible that he may start his round of the
constituency with the visit to your polling station and may be present
there when you are going through the preliminaries before the
commencement of poll. You expected to show him due courtesy and
regard when he visits your polling station and should furnish him with
such information as he may require from you for the purpose of his
report to the Commission. You should also make available to the
Observer additional information, which you may be having with you
over and above routine information. You are also expected to make
available to the Observer/Micro-Observer the list of Absentee, Shifted
and Duplicate voter (ASD list) at the polling station. The Observers
have already been briefed and directed that they will only observe the
poll being taken at your polling station, but will not give you any
direction. If, however, he makes any suggestion with a view to
providing more convenience to electors or making the poll process at
your polling station smoother, you should give due consideration to
such suggestion. At the same time, in case, you are facing any
particular problem or feeling any difficulty at your polling station, you
are at liberty to bring it to his notice, as he might be of help to you in
solving that problem or removing that difficulty by bringing the matter to
the notice of the Returning Officer or any other concerned authorities
for necessary remedial action.
9.3 The Observers will be wearing badges issued by the Commission on their
person and will also be carrying appointment letters and authority letters
issued by the Commission. The observers should be requested to sign the
‘Visit Sheet’, which shall be given to you stapled alongwith the Presiding
Officer’s Diary. You shall deposit the same after the end of the poll alongwith
the Presiding Officer’s Diary.
9.4 As it is sometimes not possible for the general observer to visit each and
every polling station in the constituency allotted to him or to be present at a
polling station for full time, the Commission has consciously decided recently
to manage the elections at the polling stations with the help of micromanagement
by deploying micro-observers wherever necessary to strengthen
the system of observation,. These micro-observers would directly be working