Indian schools’ board election this week

Muscat: Elections for the Board of Directors of Indian Schools in Oman will be held on January 13, 2018.
This is the fourth election for the board since the election process was introduced in 2011.
The Election Commission received 20 nominations, of which two were withdrawn, leaving the following 18 candidates, of which only five will be elected. Ajit K. Panicker, Dr Baby Sam Samuel Kutty, Bheem Nilkant Rao Hangarge, Deenadayalan Sundararajan, Mohammad Sabir Raza Faizi, Girish Krishnan Nair, S.A Gururaj , Jijo Kadanthottu Job, Kumar Vembu, K.l. Naidu, Nitheesh Sundaresan, A.l. Pangalan, Rabeka R, Rajiv Vaikattil Sridharan, Selvichen Jacob, Sirajudeen Nhelat, Mrs. Smitha Palamuttathil Surendran, and Srikanth Viswanathan.
Unlike the last election, this time there is more diversity in the candidature, with industrialists, academics, senior level managers, and social entrepreneurs all vying for a spot.
The voting will take place at the Indian School Muscat from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Parents of students of the Indian School Muscat can exercise their franchise to elect their representatives to the board. The Resident Card is the only identity document that will be entertained for the right to vote. Parents are required to carry the GR Number of their wards, so as to receive their Voter ID. The Election Commission had earlier published a list of parents eligible to vote in this election on the Indian School Muscat notice board and also on the Election Commission website ismelections.org, with enough time for voters to seek any corrections in the election database. Votes will be counted by the concerned authorities under the supervision of representatives from the Ministry of Education, and the results are expected to be declared on the same day. The Election Commission, under the leadership of Dr Sathish Nambiar, with Shakeel K M, Babu Rajendran, DileepSomani, and Padmini Atal, will oversee the smooth functioning of the election process.
Dr Sathish Nambiar said there have been instances where people have told the Election Commission that various promises were being made by some of the candidates, including on the fee structure, alternations in the infrastructure facilities, etc. The Election Commission advised parents not to be swayed by such promises, as all policy decisions, with respect to any important matters relating to school administration, are generally proposed by the School Management Committees. Any decisions on such proposals are taken by the 15 members of the Board of Directors on simple majority. Dr Sathish Nambiar urged the parents to avoid crowding around the Indian School Muscat premises and ensure that the whole process is smoothly conducted.