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Postal ballot commenced today (26th March) - to conclude in 5 days!
Posted on: 26/Mar/2021 1:49:24 PM
The Indian Election Commission has authorised the citizens above 80-years of age and the differently-abled to cast their votes by post!
As the elections for the Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly is scheduled to be conducted in the prevailing resurgent coronavirus pandemic, this concession has been accorded for citizens above 80 years of age and the differently-abled to cast their votes.
With this concession and the special procedure, these citizens (above 80 years of age & the differently-abled) need to undertake the trip to the polling booths – they can cast their votes by post from their respective residences.
As regards the Chennai district in Tamil Nadu state, applications were distributed to the interested citizens (above 80-years of age & the differently-abled) to cast their votes by post. 12000 citizens had applied for this. These applications were scrutinized and the disqualified applications were rejected and only 7300 citizens were allowed to cast their votes by post.
The Election officials have checked, collected data, and have prepared a list of the details of the 16 Legislative Constituencies in Chennai District, the names of the above-selected citizens, their addresses. Etc., and verified the same.
In this scenario, a review meeting was organised based on the appeal the political party representatives must be permitted to visit the above houses!
The Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and the Election Officer, Prakash, explained the procedure of casting votes by post to the representatives of all political parties.
70 squads have been set up to undertake the postal ballot as explained above. The details of the addresses to be visited by the above 70 squads will be intimated before the representatives of the contestants. As such, the postal ballot system is carried out in the presence of political party representatives.
5 personnel - Election Officers, Invigilators, Video-recording personnel and Security staff are all included in the above mentioned 70 squads for undertaking the postal ballot system.
The number of squads operating for the postal ballot in each Legislative constituency will be decided depending on the voter strength in each legislative constituency,
Arrangement for the senior citizens above 80 years of age and the differently-abled citizens to cast their postal vote confidentially is being organised by the above squad.
In case the postal-voting citizen is either blind or unable to cast their vote individually, a helper will be arranged for this purpopose.
The postal ballot commenced in Chennai today (Friday, 26th March). 5 days have been allotted for completing the casting of the postal ballot until 30th March. Prior intimation will be given on the details of when and which citizen’s place will be visited.
Each squad is scheduled to visit 15 addresses each day. All the 70 squads will complete the task of receiving the postal ballot from the 1050 postal voters and bring them safely to the Election Office.
In case the voter is not available on the day of the visit, the squad will make a second visit. In case the voter is NOT AVAILABLETHISAVAILABLE THISECOND TIME ALSO, THEIR VOTES WILL GET REJECTED! Please note that these voters will not be eligible to visit the polling booth and cast their votes!
An individual vehicle has been provided for each squad conducting the postal ballot. So, the squads will visit the individual houses on these vehicles, verify the documents including the Voter ID and then give the voting card. The political party representatives would also be available during this period! However, privacy will be organised for the voter while casting his/her vote!
Once the ballot is gathering after voting, the boxes containing these postal votes will be safely brought to the Election Offices by the squads. Then the votes will be counted and registered.
The information on the postal ballot each day will be reported to the concerned Election Officers every evening.
SO, THE POSTAL BALLOT IS CONDUCTED AS EXPLAINED ABOVE!
