New Delhi: A delegation of INDI alliance met with the Election Commission on Sunday and urged it to count the postal ballots first, as they have been playing an important role in the election results.
Addressing the media after meeting the Election Commission at the Nirvachan Sadan here, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “The vital importance of counting postal ballots first and declaring the results of postal ballots first. This is very clearly stated in Statutory Rule 54 A, which specifically says that you shall take up and deal with the postal ballots first.”
“Our complaint is that this statutory rule of this 2019 guideline has been given the go by. The Election Commission has now repealed this 2019 practice. The net result is that, by a method of practice, EVMs can be counted, and if the EVM counting gets over before the postal ballots, it will still be completed,” he said.
He alleged that the Election Commission has changed the guidelines for 2019, whereas according to rules, the Commission cannot change the rules by issuing guidelines.
The Congress spokesperson said that the multi-party delegation had already met the Commission twice on this issue earlier, and today it has met the Commission for the third time on this issue.
CPI (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury said that on the day of counting, when the counting officers are asked to count the postal ballot paper first, they say that orders should be taken from the Election Commission in this regard, which is not possible on the day of counting. That’s why the delegation met with the Election Commission today and made this request.
UNI
