Had heard a lot about voting but never had an experience. Well, this was my chance. A perfect voting day for me... Government holiday, voting spot within a hundred yard distance from my door and a familiar local brother as a candidate. Couple of years back, I hated politics and didn't even want to talk about it. Thus, obviously, did not vote even when no one was against it. You may wander what brought this change. Yeah! me too. May be it is the Citizen Rights movement brought up by the people who are boycotting the election. Nice joke huh!

Okay... now here is what happened during the day. I had just completed my meal and I heard someone calling my name from the road. It was none other than my candidate bro. There were 5-6 other friends around him and they were moving towards the voting camp. It was happening at a school nearby. Maoists were against the local elections and so were the seven-party alliance. And they had a well-built proof with them that the people were with them. They had called "Nepal Banda" for a week.

Ah! Then I went out towards the hotspot with my voting slip and there they were... my local gang. The school gate was crowded with people and the school was very well decorated. It looked as if there was some fete going on. (The decoration was for "Saraswati Puja" few days back). The security was tight. There were Para-military guards all around the place. Even on top of neighboring roofs. As I reached near the gate, one of the guys asked me if I had already voted. As soon as I shook my head, he led me in the school.

When I first saw the ballot paper, I lost my focus among those numerous symbols. Then I called a police standing nearby and asked him where "lattai" (the symbol I had to vote on) was. He assisted me well. I put the "swastika" stamp on the symbol and started to fold the paper. I did not know that I could vote for many people on the same paper. The police guy asked me to stamp on others too. And since I didn't know on which to vote, he suggested me remaining ones.

Then I stood there with guys for some time and it was time for tiffin. We were being treated by our "Man of the day". We were not the only ones. The security guards and election officials were also entertained. Well... overall it was fun. At the end of the day, there were about 600 votes in the ballot box, about 35 % of the total voters. It would have been way less but thanks to the brilliant tricks of few fellows, many of the guys got to vote up to 5 times.

I know that this election is of no significance but I am glad that I made the difference that I could. You may say I'm a cheat but I refuse. We have the right to vote that person who is most beneficial to us. That is the fundamental of all the elections. Thus, I carry the ink mark on my thumbnail.

Ink mark on my thumbnail posted by Pradeep Chand @ 2:02 AM

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