EC: Now those on poll duty to cast postal ballots at facilitation centres

NEW DELHI: Polling personnel in the five election-bound states will have to cast their votes at designated facilitation centres only and cannot keep the ballot papers with them for long.

Election rules were recently changed by the government on the recommendation of the Election Commission with an aim to check the potential misuse of the postal ballot facility extended to voters on poll duty.

Addressing a press conference here to announce the schedule for Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said voters using postal ballots are becoming a force and an interest group.

“We will not call it a misuse of the postal ballot. But if government servants using postal ballot facilities start a bargain — they have their interests —that is not legitimate,” he said.

The poll panel had in September last year recommended to the Union law ministry to tweak the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to ensure that voters on poll duty cast their votes at voter facilitation centres located where they are deployed.

The EC was of the view that if a postal ballot remains with a voter for a long time, the person could be highly susceptible to undue influence, threats, bribery and other unethical means by candidates or political parties.

Recently, the Legislative Department in the law ministry has come out with a notification amending the Conduct of Election Rules.

A new section 18A has been added in the rules. It states that “notwithstanding anything in this Part, a voter on election duty shall receive his postal ballot, record his vote thereon in accordance with this Part and return the same at the facilitation centre as specified, in writing, by the returning officer.”

With the amendment coming into force on August 23, voters on poll duty in the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, to be held between November 7 and 30, will now vote at the facilitation centres.

Single-phase Assembly polls will be held in Madhya Pradesh on November 17, Rajasthan on November 23, Telangana on November 30 and Mizoram on November 7 while Chhattisgarh will go to the polls in two phases on November 7 (20 seats) and 17 (70 seats).