The Election Commission of India has issued detailed directives on efficient management of the counting of postal ballots in Chhattisgarh on December 8.
The directives assumes significance following complaints lodged by the Congress party leaders on the issue of postal ballots in Chhattisgarh. As per the EC directives , the Returning Officers would meet the Observer a day earlier to counting and gather information on the number of postal ballots reaching the the counting centre that particular day.
The next day, the Returning Officer would provide information on the postal ballots reaching the counting centre before the start of counting at the centre. There would be two to three tables set for counting of postal ballots in every counting centre in the State. An Assistant Returning Officer would be appointed for every table assigned for counting of postal ballots.
Each of the tables assigned for counting of postal ballots would have the staff counting of upto 500 postal ballots.The table would have a Counting Supervisor and two counting assistants assigned to each table. The EC had directed that all the counting staff should have received training in counting of votes.This apart, before the envelopes containing the postal ballots are opened, the Returning Officer or the Assistant Returning Officer must inform the Supervisor, Counting Assistant and Micro Observer about the validity of the postal ballots.
The Observer, after the declaration of results, would provide a detailed report on the procedure adopted for counting of votes.The report would comprise details such as total number of postal ballots, number of rejected postal ballots, the table number where the postal ballots were counted and the time taken to count the postal ballots.