Don't count EVM votes before postal ballots, INDIA bloc urges EC
INDIA bloc delegation met the EC and submitted a memorandum asking the EC to ensure postal ballots are done first and their results declared before EVM voting is completed
Ahead of the counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections, a delegation of INDIA bloc leaders met the Election Commission on Sunday (June 2) to submit a memorandum involving the counting of postal ballots.
"In fact, the present issue will possess a direct impct on the subsequent general and assembly elections," read the memorandum submitted to the EC.
Nullify new guideline
One of the demands made by the INDIA bloc to the EC is to set aside a new guideline issued by them stipulating the counting of EVM votes first before the postal ballots. In the memorandum, the INDIA bloc quotes the statutory provision in the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, which stated that the counting of postal ballots must be dealt/counted first. After which, the returning officer has to declare all the valid postal ballot votes, record the results and declare the same.
Even the Handbook for Returning Officer and Counting Agents, (August 2023) stated that the counting of postal ballots has to be initiated first. And according to an EC letter, it said that "Under no circumstances, the results of all the rounds of the EVM counting should be announed before finalising the postal ballot counting..."
However, the memorandum pointed out that the EC had withdrawn this instruction that the penultimate round of EVM counting should be taken up only after completion of postal ballot counting.
Bihar elections
Further, the INDIA bloc pointed out that the significant impact of the postal ballots votes was witnessed in the year 2020 during the Bihar elections, when the difference between the winning alliance and the other parties was only 12,700 votes for the entire state, whereas the total number of voters that had opted for postal ballots in Bihar were 52,000. These 12,700 votes accounted for only 0.03 per cent of the total votes cast but clearly changed the outcome of the entire election.
In fact, there was a huge outcry in Bihar, with the first election (which was conducted after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic), where the postal ballots were counted at the end of counting of EVM votes.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi termed the EC's decision to change a statutory rule through a guideline to enable counting of EVM votes before counting of postal ballots as "legally untenable".
The INDIA bloc demand is to urgently nullify the guidelines/notices/letters of ECI reversing this rule. They have asked the ECI to withdraw the letter and issue direction to returning officers to complete the counting of postal ballots and declare the results on the Returning Officers' table, before the final counting of EVMs.
Videograph transport of EVMs
Sitaram Yechury shares the demands of INDIA bloc to EC with the media
