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In its continuous endeavour to make the election process more efficient and transparent, the Election Commission of India (ECI) stated that the polling personnel on election duty would cast their ballot at a voter facilitation centre, said an official release on Tuesday.
As per the official release, "The ECI has incorporated the new section 18A in Conduct of Election Rules 1961, stating that "a voter on election duty shall receive his postal ballot, record his vote thereon and return the same at the voter facilitation centre as specified, in writing, by the Returning Officer." Himachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Maneesh Garg on Tuesday informed about the same and said that the voters on election duty would cast their ballot at a voter facilitation centre, instead of sending it by post. "The new rule was introduced to check the potential misuse of the postal ballot facility extended to voters on poll duty, and also to enhance their participation," he said.For operationalising the above provision effectively and smoothly, a detailed Standard operating procedure (SOP) has been prepared by the state election department and circulated to all District Election Officers, according to the official release. The detailed SOP describes in detail the steps involved from applying for postal ballots/EDC to the issuance of postal ballots, EDC by the AROs, the casting of votes at the voter facilitation centres and finally ensuring that the cast ballots reach the counting centres in time. This provides for separate SOPs for polling personnel on election duty, police personnel and home guards on election duty, drivers and conductors of HRTC and other staff deployed by election offices. The polling personnel on election duty will apply on form 12/form 12A for postal ballots/EDC to the returning officer concerned, who will send the same to the ARO where they are voters. The ARO where they are voters will prepare their postal ballots and send them to the ARO where they are posted and deployed on duty. As per the CEO, the polling personnel on election duty will cast their vote through postal ballot at the training centre during the second and third trainings. This has been done to facilitate the polling personnel on duty to cast their votes at the facility before they proceed to the allotted polling stations for election duty. Apart from this, the CEO said that the police personnel/home guards jawans deployed on election duty will be provided Form 12(PB) or Form 12A (EDC) by the Nodal officer as appointed by the Superintendent of Police. "The nodal officer will send it to the concerned ROs/AROs. As far as the HRTC staff is concerned, the Regional Manager will appoint a Nodal officer to coordinate all activities related to the distribution of Form 12 (PB) or Form 12A (EDC) for drivers and conductors on election duty and will send to the concerned ROs/AROs," he said. The other staff will apply to the concerned ARO where they are deployed and will be accordingly issued the postal ballots. These 3 categories of voters on duty will cast their vote through a postal ballot at the facilitation centre set up at the RO/ARO office. Further, a clearing house will be set up at Shimla where nodal officers from every assembly segment will come with their postal ballots and hand them to the respective AROs where the employees are posted or deployed to ensure that they can cast their votes and the casted votes reach the respective counting centres in time before the date of counting. This has been done to ensure that there is no delay in exchange of the postal ballots and consequently no one is denied the opportunity to cast their vote. CEO Garg further said that the process of voting at the facilitation centres will be videographed while maintaining the secrecy of voting. Also, an officer will be present at the facilitation centres for attestation of declarations. Political party representatives and representatives of candidates will also be informed about the schedule and can remain present at the facilitation centres. (ANI)
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