Also referred to as mail-in ballots, postal ballots enable registered voters to cast their ballots by mail as an alternative to visiting a polling place. It offers a practical substitute for those who are unable to cast a ballot in person because of age, being outside of their home district, a handicap, or needing to attend to important tasks on election day.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) allowed media representatives covering election activities to vote by mail in this general election.
The opposition-led INDIA group on Sunday requested that the electoral authority give Returning Officers instructions to ensure that mail-in ballots be counted and their results announced prior to the announcement of the EVM results, far in advance of the counting day.
The opposition leaders emphasized in a letter to the ECI that the Returning Officer is required by the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to start the process of tallying postal ballots first. They asserted, however, that in spite of the poll body’s 2019 rules to the contrary, this legislative procedure was revoked and given a “go-by” by the body.
The opposition has expressed concerns over a revision to the ECI’s 2019 postal ballot counting standards. EVM counting started 30 minutes after the conclusion of the postal ballot counting and continued until the 2019 general elections. “Under no circumstances, should the results of all the rounds of the EVM counting be announced before finalising the postal ballot counting,” stated the ECI’s Handbook for Counting Agents, which was published in February 2019.
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If only postal ballots decided Lok Sabha result 2024, it would look like this
