On the first day of polling in the 17th Lok Sabha election, 91 constituencies across 18 states and two Union Territories went to polls.
But what was special on the first day (April 11) is the 100 % voter turnout in Malogam village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district. And that is because of its sole voter – Sokela Tayang.
The 39-year-old Tayang had arrived in the tin shed that was the village’s makeshift polling station and cast her vote for both the state assembly and the Lok Sabha elections.
And with just Tayang casting her vote, work was done for presiding officer Gammar Bam. However, the election team had been instructed to stay at the station till 5 pm on Thursday, when the polling hours officially ended.
For only one voter, setting up the polling station was not an easy task for the five-member election team headed by Bam. It had taken considerable effort as Malogam is nestled in the jungles and mountains bordering Tibet.
The election team had to trek up into the hills. Before that they had to set out early on Wednesday morning, first travelling by bus and then by foot.
Normally, the Election Commission of India requires the process of assigning an employee to a location to be random. But in this case, the district election officer was permitted to pick polling staff who could do the trek up into the hills.
Before the polling, an official was sent to locate Tayang and inform her about the schedule. The team collected two sets of electronic voting machines from Hawai, the district headquarters – one for the Lok Sabha polls, another for the state assembly.
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Even though the team had wrapped up its work early, the poor mobile network in the area mean that the district administration was unable to get in touch with the polling party to establish that. It was only by early evening that the police informed Sode Potom, the assistant returning officer of Hawai and Hayuliang circle under which Malogam falls, that Tayang had cast her vote.
Asked if one vote was worth the effort, Potom said, “We cannot deprive anyone of their voting right, their right to participate in the democratic process, because of their location.”
During the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the polling station had two voters – Tayang and her husband, Janelum Tayang. But he had since transferred his vote elsewhere.