Postal ballots will also be counted during counting of votes for Vidhan Sabha election on December 8. Office of the Chief Postmaster General Bhopal Zone has directed its staff to ensure special postal delivery system to deliver postal ballots.
It has been said in the directives that postal ballots must reach concerning returning officers positively before 8 am on December 8. If posts are received at some post office belatedly due to some circumstances and its distribution is not possible at scheduled time then postal bags received from railway postal service should be opened and through the process special arrangements should be made for postal ballots’ distribution. If there are no postal ballots for any constituency then there is no need to prepare special packets.
Arrangements for receiving special bags for ballot papers in time at offices of rail post service will be made by Head Superintendent/post master/assistant post master etc and postal ballots will be distributed to returning officers 8 am on counting day. To ensure efficient functioning, Head Superintendent/post master/assistant post master will also ensure that all bags should be opened before time and postal ballots are distributed to returning officers/collectors before 8 am.
The special bags to be prepared for railway postal service offices under Madhya Pradesh zone will bear the inscription “election express” postal ballots. All superintendents/assistant superintendents of the zone will be present at their headquarters on the counting day since they may be required to deliver “election express” bags if need arises. Similarly, the postal sorting offices of the city, where counting will be held will prepare special bag for express delivery and handover the bags after sorting ballot papers to concerning election officers.
Railway postal service/1 of Jabalpur, Satna and Ujjain will function from 6 am on counting day instead of their regular time. They will sort ballot papers from postal bags and hand over them to local election officer before 8 am. All post office and sorting offices will have to keep in view that postal ballots received till last time reach their destination.