Booth capturing, or booth looting, is

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...

in which party loyalists or hired criminals "capture" a

polling booth A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English and British English, although polling place is the building

and vote in place of legitimate voters to ensure that a particular candidate wins. It is a form of

voter suppression Voter suppression is a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting ...

India

It is a general rule in Indian elections that agents of every contesting candidates need to be present at the booth. However, they are in many areas threatened or assaulted and so leave the polling premises. The

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

has a general abbreviation that a section or half of one of Central Para Military Forces is enough to prevent incidents. The first instance of booth capturing in India was recorded in the 1957 General Elections in Rachiyahi, in

Begusarai District Begusarai District is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. The city of Begusarai is its administrative headquarters and is part of the Munger division. History Begulsarai was established in 1870 as part of Munger Dist ...

's Matihani assembly seat. The word came into prominent use in the media during the late 1970s and 1980s when the number of parties and candidates multiplied. This resulted in some Parties using underhand methods including booth capturing, especially in the rural India. In 1989 the Representation of the People Act, 1951 was modified to include booth capturing as an offense punishable by law and countermanding or adjourning any poll that was booth captured. The development of the

Electronic Voting Machine An electronic voting machine is a voting machine based on electronics. Two main technologies exist: '' optical scanning'' and '' direct recording'' (DRE). Optical scanning In an optical scan voting system, or marksense, each voter's choices ...

(EVM) was also intended to make it harder for booth capturers to stuff the ballot boxes with their votes by enabling a five-minute delay between each vote entered as against hundreds of votes in the same time using ballot papers (stamped by a group of 3–4). The EVMs also possess a "close" button which can be used by the polling officer to deactivate the machines. Despite this, booth capturing continues to happen, albeit at a much reduced rate.

Nepal

Booth capturing was prevalent in the

1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly The first Nepalese Constituent Assembly was a unicameral body of 601 members that served from May 28, 2008, to May 28, 2012. It was formed as a result of the first Constituent Assembly election held on April 10, 2008. The Constituent Assembly ( ...

. Another election was required in 106 polling stations because of electoral fraud, which included booth capturing. Political parties have accused each other of booth capturing and demanded another election as recently as 2017.

References

Bibliography

*Nedumpara, Jose (2004). ''Political Economy and Class Contradictions: A Study''. New Delhi: Anmol. *Omvedt, Gail (1993). ''Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India''. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe. *(2005). "Poll Booth Rerun Infamy in Churulia." ''The Statesman'' (India). 29 September. *Shakder, S. L. (1992). ''The Law and Practice of Elections in India''. Mumbai: National Publishing House. *Singh, Bhim (2002). ''Murder of Democracy in Jammu and Kashmir''. New Delhi: Amand Niketan.

India

Nepal

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading