Author Meghna Pant Slams 'Broken' Voting System In Mumbai Amid Low Turnout

18 hours ago

In this news bulletin, author and Mumbaikar Meghna Pant discusses the challenges of voting in Mumbai as turnout figures hover around 57%. Pant argues that low participation is not due to voter apathy but rather a 'broken' and 'inefficient' administrative system. She states, 'Low voter turnout in Mumbai is not apathy, it is administrative,' highlighting the exhaustion caused by long queues and manual voter roll searches. Pant calls for the urgent digitisation of the process, suggesting QR code scans and digital tokens to respect the time of working professionals and caregivers. The discussion also touches upon the need for better voter education regarding local governance, such as the BMC, to engage the youth and Gen Z. Host Sonal and Pant further explore the idea of a candidate-tracking app to provide voters with historical data and performance ratings, aiming for a more accountable and informed voter base in India's financial capital.

Transcript

00:00let's get also an understanding of where the voter turnout is it's come down to some 57 percent

00:06i'm told at the moment with just minutes to go with just about last 20 minutes to go before

00:12voting actually ends today but let's bring on a mumbai car to understand what's been happening

00:16magna panth is back with us on the program uh magna is a mumbai car and author as well

00:22magna we spoke a couple of days ago and we said oh mumbai should come out 56 percent 57 percent

00:28like how are you expecting change with that it's beyond ridiculous but first let's put an end to

00:33this controversy of the i went to vote uh in fact twice today because in the morning it was so

00:39crowded i've got an acetone bottle here sorry but it's an acetone bottle and i've dabbed it here and

00:45this is my inked finger now let's see if it's coming off it is not so i think it's an unnecessary

00:53controversy i think we don't have to take it very seriously but i think sonal one thing i'll

00:58point out okay magna panth has given us a quick reality check over there maybe it happened in

01:02certain booths and not in the others because the video that you saw there was actually of a reporter

01:07doing it so he managed to do it so clearly there's some discrepancy there but good to know

01:11it's not been uh there all over yeah go ahead absolutely so you know sonal i went to vote in the

01:16morning today and i just want to point out one thing you know we're blaming mumbai cars for

01:20voter apathy but i think this may be a myth because i think one thing i saw when i went to

01:25vote i took my two small children with me and there was such long queues and a process that

01:30should take 10 minutes took almost was going to take one to two very exhausting hours and this is

01:35not because of the people because the system is broken now what i saw was these blurry printed

01:40voter rolls and this manual searching this is very inefficient the system you know you've got

01:45these paper-based lists and there's quality photos of people everywhere and each voter lookup is

01:51taking at least 15 to 30 minutes and then you're given assigned a booth number there you also get

01:56standing in long lines and the poor polling staff are overworked they're stressed out this is a system

02:01they did not design so all the working professionals all the elderly uh all the parents with children

02:07like mine or caregivers you will simply give up and leave so low voter turnout in mumbai is not

02:13apathy it's administrative friction and it needs to be looked at especially sonal in today's world

02:18because i mean everything is mechanized i mean our groceries are on our phones on apps our railway

02:24i just took the one day bharat this weekend to surat everything is mechanized airports and banks are

02:29mechanized and digitized why is voting still stuck in 1995 there's a simple digital lineup that we need

02:36you enter your voter id you scan a qr code your photo and your booth number appear instantly

02:42even offline and then you get your q tokenization you know this would end but mehna can i bring you

02:48the other side of the story i don't know if you could hear what the soundbite we played of

02:52vishad radlani some time ago he said the opposite of what you're saying he said he went inside and

02:59there were nobody of course your boots are different i'm assuming and the area where he went to cast his

03:05vote i'm assuming it's going to be sober and but that's just me i don't know his address at all

03:10but you know i'm assuming that that's where you know the elite don't come out in vote i'm again like

03:16i'm again underlining i don't know this i'm just assuming that that's the apathy where and the place

03:20where we are seeing lower turnout he said there are more officials than voters so there seems to be

03:26different areas throwing different trends in this very hyper local election which i'm actually glad

03:33about that should be the case but i also voted in south bombay so i had to go back twice in the

03:38morning the crowds were thronging oh so maybe an issue of timing and then i went after lunch around

03:42two o'clock then i went back and that time it was completely empty i was in and out in 10 minutes

03:48so i think it really depends on your timing also and this is again something that we should learn

03:52from that go in the afternoon time you know around lunch or post lunch uh and but more than

03:58anything else sonal i think we really need to respect voters time because mumbai is a city

04:02that runs on minutes you have to digitize the entire voting process otherwise people will not

04:07show up this is not the city that has a lot of idle time people are literally running second to

04:13second everywhere so even though it's a public holiday please respect the voters time and we need

04:18to in the next elections learn from this please mechanize the entire process and have mobile free

04:23verification so that when i enter a polling booth i'm in and out in five minutes i think that

04:28rahul gandhi might not be very happy with the suggestion you're making he's had his own issues

04:32with evm even arvind keish jiwal has had his own issues with evm so i'm not sure how they're going

04:36to respond but actually i feel digitization should happen on the other end there should be like an app

04:42or some place where we can go and find out about the history of all the candidates i think that's

04:46more critical for me as a voter you know an app or a website where i could go and i could see okay

04:51this is the area i vote in these are all the candidates who are in the fray and someone who

04:55can give me a full background upon the candidates the work they did have a rating system of sorts i

05:00think that's the kind of digitization we need more don't you think oh my god sona you've hit upon such

05:06a brilliant idea if they want to reach the youth if they want to reach gen z if they want to get young

05:11people to come out and vote you have got to educate them there is no education on how i didn't know

05:17anything about the bmc elections i had to educate myself because people around me again mostly south

05:22bombay eyes who seem to also live in a vacuum and very vacuous sometimes in that terms i think

05:27there's a lot of political apathy because there's no knowledge of politics so people were saying

05:31things like the bmc elections about voting for the prime minister so i actually made a reel about it

05:36because i couldn't meet the level of the lack of knowledge that people have in mumbai about politics

05:42they only know about bollywood and bsc but nothing about the bmc and i think this is something

05:47really little bit of education would really have a young person who speaks in you know a relatable way

05:55to reach out to uh people of this category you'll get more of a voter turnout it should not be an

06:02othering which is taking place where politics has seen something that you know belongs to people

06:07who will be given electricity uh you know subsidies or railway subsidies it should reach out to

06:12everybody because mumbai is the place of the highest number of millionaires so let's keep that

06:16in mind also it should be all in compassion i actually have another suggestion i think people

06:22who don't vote there should be some kind of penalty there as well people who take holidays around that

06:27time there should be some penalties there as well but like i said i have lots of these ideas i don't

06:31know who's listening but if anybody is please take them into account i would love it to have a more

06:35accountable uh voter base more than just you know just government and officials over there but we

06:40leave it there for the moment and let's see what comes out of these results migra panth good that you

06:45went and casted your vote good that your ink was at least permanent we'll see how that went for other

06:49mumbai cars in a moment from now thank you sona

Author Meghna Pant Slams 'Broken' Voting System In Mumbai Amid Low Turnout

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