New Delhi: With less than 24 hours left for the results of the 18th Lok Sabha Elections to be announced, the Opposition leaders had urged the Election Commission to count postal ballots first and then finalise the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) numbers.
The leaders demanded that the results of the postal ballots should be declared first. “This is clearly stated in the statutory rule,” said Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
In their letter to the EC, the INDIA leaders pointed out that the winning margin in the 2020 Bihar elections was 12,700 votes for the state, while the number of postal ballots was 52,000. “In fact, there was a huge outcry in Bihar as it was the first election (which was conducted after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic) where the postal ballots were counted at the end of the counting of EVM votes,” the INDIA parties said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
They asked the EC to issue directions as per Rule 54A of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, which says “the Returning Officer shall first deal with the postal ballot papers…”
Till the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, the counting of postal ballots was done 30 minutes before the EVM counting. All postal ballots had to be counted before the EVM counting could be completed.
“Under no circumstances, should the results of all the rounds of the EVM counting be announced before finalising the postal ballot counting,” stated the EC’s Handbook for Counting Agents in February 2019.
But the EC tweaked the guideline after the 2019 elections as the number of postal ballots had shot up after the introduction of Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS), and the mandatory counting of VVPAT slips of five randomly selected polling stations.
It withdrew its earlier guideline and directed all Chief Electoral Officers on May 18, 2019 that the EVM counting “can go on irrespective of the stage of postal ballot counting”.
Now, the postal ballot counting begins 30 minutes before the EVM counting, but does not have to be completed before the EVMs.
The EC also revised the rule for re-counting of postal ballots. Earlier, postal ballots were recounted if the margin of victory was less than the total number of postal ballots. Now, the postal ballots that are rejected as invalid would be re-verified if the margin is less than the number of such ballots.
The EC introduced postal ballot for essential service workers like in the defence, those above 80 years of age and persons with disabilities. Now, the age has been increased to 85 years for seniors and Covid 19 patients have been included in the list of those eligible for postal ballots.
The Returning Officer (RO) appointed by the EC has to ensure that the votes are counted as per the rules, and in a fair manner. An RO is supported by assistant returning officers (AROs), who are responsible for counting in the assembly segments falling under the respective parliamentary constituency.
Counting votes for a constituency will not begin if there are any pending EC orders regarding an adjourned poll at any polling station(s). However, if a re-poll at any polling station(s) is taking place on the counting day, the process for the constituency can commence. In this scenario, the penultimate round of counting should only begin after the re-polled EVMs and VVPATs from such polling stations are securely escorted to the counting hall.
The Returning Officer should read aloud the provisions of Section 128 of the Representation of the People Act 1951 and Rule 54 of Conduct of Election Rules 1961 to maintain the secrecy of the vote. Under Rule 60 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, counting shall be continuous without any interval, it said.
“No unauthorised person should be present in the counting hall. Under Rule 53(4), the RO has the authority to direct anybody to go out of the Counting Centre, if anyone fails to obey the lawful directions of the returning officer,” the poll body added.
As per Rule 54A of the Conduct of Elections Rules 1961, the instructions for counting postal ballots specify that the counting process must begin at the Returning Officer’s table. Only those postal ballot papers received by the RO before the scheduled start time for counting will be considered for counting.
