GUWAHATI, March 10 - The Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) has urged the Election Commission of India (EC) to provide the postal ballot facility for the city-based media persons during the forthcoming Assam Legislative Assembly election scheduled for April 4 and 11.
The forum pointed out that there are thousands of media employees, including journalists, in Guwahati, working for over 20 news dailies, around hundred periodicals, five satellite news channels and a few entertainment electronic media outlets.
However, most of these media employees living in Guwahati are non-natives to the city and they have their voting rights in their native home towns or villages.
�There should be more than 4,000 media employees, along with their eligible family members, who do not have their names in the voters list of greater Guwahati. These people often miss the opportunity to exercise their voting right as they cannot leave the station on the poll dates due to their crucial duties to cover the election and thus most of the valuable votes often go waste,� said a statement issued by the EMFA.
The forum appealed to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) as well as the Chief Electoral Officer of Assam to arrange postal voting facilities for the interested city-based media persons along with their families. The EMFA said that the centre for postal balloting and also the date and time for the same should be decided by the election authority.
