Sanctity of vote: Man booked for filming ballot stamping

The man uploaded a video of himself stamping the ballot paper

JHELUM: The Jhelum police have booked a young man who had allegedly recorded himself stamping a ballot paper inside the polling station and violating the secrecy of the vote. According to the first information report (FIR), registered at the Civil Lines police station in Jhelum on the complaint of SI Raja Sarfaraz Ahmed, on July 25 — election day — a youngster had uploaded a video on to social media of stamping his ballot papers for the national and provincial assembly and then casting them.

The FIR further states that the clip had been referred to the police by the Jhelum district election commissioner.

After lodging the case, police said that they were trying to identify the youngster and conducting raids to arrest him. Ahmed, while speaking to the media said that the youngster had violated the rules and code of conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) which prohibited filming votes. The youngster had subsequently been booked under section 178-D of the Election Act 2017.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2018.