A surge of voters

The last few days before the cutoff date for registration of voters (June 30, 2008) for the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) elections saw hundreds of people surging to the BPP office to ensure that they would be eligible to vote come October when, hopefully, the elections will be held at last, threatened litigation permitting. The BPP’s senior executive Cawas S. Panthaki informed Parsiana over the telephone on July 8 that a record 1,100 registration applications were received on the last day. A proper process of verification would have to be undertaken as there has been "duplication, even triplication” of registrations with people filling out more than one application to inflate the voters’ list and it will take a while to work out the final figure. Voters can check whether they have been registered on the BPP’s website: bppvoterslist.org

The public notice signed by Mehli P. Colah, chief executive of the BPP, regarding the schedule for elections states, "the registers will be frozen as on June 30, 2008 as per the sanctioned scheme. Should a certificate be lost or destroyed, members on the General or Donors’ Register can apply on a prescribed form on or before October 1, 2008 for a duplicate certificate, on payment of Rs 10. Voters will be permitted to exercise their franchise only on production of their respective certificates.”

The World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) had threatened to challenge the holding of the elections under universal adult franchise in the Supreme Court. However, the WAPIZ Page in the Free Press Journal of July 4, 2008 stated in a headline "BPP elections are around the corner.” The Page also included a section titled "The Election Column.” Another article exhorted voters not to vote "for any out of Bombay candidates who stand for trusteeship.” Judging from the tone and contents of the WAPIZ Page an appeal to the Supreme Court for the present appears remote.