I feel relieved at rendering my national responsiblity. I feel gratified for standing up to what I believe. I feel confident about the future. And, I feel proud to cast MY VOTE!

I must say that stamping the ballot papers was a smooth sailing. The process is pretty simple without any obfuscations. A staff camping outside the polling station checked my name in a list of registered voters and assigned a polling booth to me inside the station, which was a makeshift arrangement inside a kids’ school. Before entering the polling station I was searched professionally (and apologetically) by a young officer among a dozen security officials. I must say that the security arrangements were excellent. Two rangers round the corner on each side, one on the rooftop and about 5 police officials were sighted. No vehicles were being allowed to use the road on which the polling station was located. And this is the arrangement for a polling station in a pretty safe residential area which has no history of violence. Hats off to the government, I hope the law and order situation remains calm all day.

Once inside the polling station, a courteous staff member asked for my National ID (NIC) Card. My credentials were quickly verified by two men in parallel on separate copies of similar electoral rolls and my name was striked out. Moving on to the next table, two men quickly filled in the ballot papers for National and Provincial assemblies with my NIC number and stamped them while a third flecked my left thumb with ink. The ballot papers were handed over to me and I was directed in to a small room where I could stamp my choice in privacy. Moving out of it, I dropped the two papers in separate transparent boxes and felt a sigh of relief and comfort.

During the whole process, not a single person asked me, pressurised me or threatened me to vote for someone specifically. For ME, the process was completely transparent (yeah, that’s for me only!).

I witnessed a very professional display of work ethics as well when a potential voter came up to the staff and found that his name wasn’t in the list because he didn’t register. He asked if he could vote in any case rather maliciously. The EC staff categorically denied it saying “if your name isn’t there, it is simple impossible for you to vote and you may leave now.” Again, this helped me to feel more confident about the process.

It is over for now, but the excitement will surely return when the results start flowing in. Overall, casting my vote for the first has been a satiating and cheering experience.