With less than 24 hours remaining until the results of the 18th Lok Sabha Elections are announced, Opposition leaders have called on the Election Commission (EC) to prioritize the counting of postal ballots before finalizing the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results.
The Opposition leaders insist that the results of the postal ballots should be declared first. “This is clearly stated in the statutory rule,” emphasized Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
In a letter to the EC, the INDIA leaders highlighted the 2020 Bihar elections, where the winning margin was 12,700 votes, while the number of postal ballots was 52,000. They noted significant public discontent during the Bihar elections as it was the first election conducted post-Covid-19 pandemic where postal ballots were counted after EVM votes. The INDIA parties urged the EC to follow Rule 54A of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, which mandates that “the Returning Officer shall first deal with the postal ballot papers.”
Counting Postal Ballots: What the Rule Says
Until the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, postal ballots were counted 30 minutes before the EVM counting commenced. According to the EC’s Handbook for Counting Agents (February 2019), postal ballots had to be counted before the completion of EVM counting. It stated, “Under no circumstances, should the results of all the rounds of the EVM counting be announced before finalising the postal ballot counting.”
Changes Post-2019 Election Guidelines
However, after the 2019 elections, the EC revised the guideline due to the increased number of postal ballots following the introduction of the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) and the mandatory counting of VVPAT slips from five randomly selected polling stations. The EC withdrew its earlier guideline and instructed all Chief Electoral Officers on May 18, 2019, that the EVM counting “can go on irrespective of the stage of postal ballot counting.”