Voters education camps for Army personnel in Leh

In an initiative to encourage Army personnel to use postal ballots error-free, Leh administration has launched voters education camps to avoid large scale rejection of their votes in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state.
Around 55 per cent votes of Army personnel got rejected due to technical errors committed by the soldiers or officers in Leh during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, a senior official said today.
Deputy Commissioner cum District Election Officer, Simrandeep Singh has launched Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) camps in various sectors of Leh district for Army personnel.
"We have held several camps of SVEEP to educate Army jawans and officers how to use postal ballots and forms to avoid rejections of their valuable votes," Singh said.

The SVEEP team of district Leh headed by Singh conducted another training session for about 1,200 soldiers of Ladakh Scouts in Kharu sub-division of the Leh district in connection with the awareness of the Service voters of Army.
During the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, a total of nearly 5,000 PBs were sent to the soldiers of Ladakh Scouts of Army, who mainly constitute the service voters of Ladakh region, he said.

Out of this, nearly 2,000 votes were received for counting and out of these 2,000 received votes, 55 per cent votes (nearly 1,100) got rejected due to technical errors committed by the soldiers or officers in signing or attesting the declaration (Form 13A), enclosed with the vote, he added.

"So far, the Leh administration has trained nearly 1,000 soldiers and officers of Ladakh Scouts in this regard. More such trainings are expected in the run up to the Assembly Elections", DEO said.
Four Assembly segments of Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh region are going to polls in the first phase of polling along with 11 other constituencies on November 25.
The five-phased polling in Jammu and Kashmir will take place on November 25, December 2, 9, 14 and 20.