EC wants 'military husbands' too enrolled as service voters

The Election Commission (EC) wants the husbands of women defence personnel to be enrolled as service voters, at par with the "military wives", the poll panel said on Wednesday.

According to existing electoral rules, a defence personnel's wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman officer's husband is not.

However, the EC has written to the Law Ministry to amend the Representation of the People Act (R.P. Act) to replace the term "wife" with "spouse", so that female officers' husbands could be included in service voters' list.

"There have been demands to make the provision of service voters gender-neutral," Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena said while addressing a seminar here on enrolling service voters.

Senior officers from the Defence, Home and the External Affairs ministries and officers from the armed forces and paramilitary forces were present at the event.

Members of the armed forces, paramilitary forces, police personnel posted outside their state and central government employees posted outside India are eligible to be enrolled as service voters.

--IANS

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