ECI’s thirtieth initiative: New pointers purpose to scale back delays; guarantee uniformity in counting technique of postal ballots | India Information

NEW DELHI: The Election Fee of India has determined to additional streamline the method of counting of Postal Ballots to scale back delays and improve readability as its thirtieth initiative.To make sure uniformity and utmost readability within the counting course of, the Election Fee has determined that the penultimate (second final) spherical of EVM/VVPATs counting shall be taken up solely after the counting of Postal Poll Papers is accomplished, on the counting middle, the place postal poll counting is being performed.“As per the earlier instructions, EVM counting could theoretically go on irrespective of the stage of postal ballot counting and chances of it getting completed before the completion of postal ballot counting cannot be ruled out. In view of the recent initiatives taken by the Commission for home voting for PwDs and senior citizens (85+) also, the number of postal ballots has increased substantially,” the assertion learn. “Although, counting of postal ballots generally gets completed before counting of EVMs, in order to ensure uniformity and utmost clarity in the counting process, the Commission has decided that, henceforth, the penultimate (second last) round of EVM/VVPATs counting shall be taken up only after the counting of Postal Ballot Papers is completed, at the counting center, where postal ballot counting is being done,” it added. The Fee has additionally directed that in instances the place there are a lot of postal ballots, the ROs are to make sure that ample variety of tables and counting employees are in place so there is no such thing as a delay and the counting course of is additional streamlined.Underneath the brand new pointers, counting of postal ballots and Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballots (ETPBs) will take higher priority over EVM counting to make sure uniformity and keep away from confusion.