NEW DELHI, Apr 17: Over 14,000 of around 75,000 Delhi Police and civil officials deployed on election duty on April 10 here have exercised their franchise through postal ballots.
Delhi Election Commission had distributed around 30,000 postal ballots and nearly 45,000 Election Duty Certificates (EDCs) to security personnel and civil officials who were involved in conduct of the election in the national capital.
EC officials said so far 14,387 postal ballots have been received from Delhi Police personnel and the number is expected to go up as they will be received till May 16, the day of counting. The Commission had issued postal ballots to 25,897 Delhi Police personnel and 3,478 civil officials.
They said 45,383 EDCs were issued to civil officials on election duty in the city but could not provide figures of those who have exercised their franchise through EDCs so far.
“Postal ballots will be received till beginning of vote count on May 16,” Delhi Election Commission’s chief nodal officer Ankur Garg told PTI.
EDCs are issued to those who are deployed for polling duty in the constituencies where they have voting rights. The polling staff, having EDCs can caste their votes at polling stations where they have been deployed.
Government employees deployed on election duty outside their constituencies where they are enrolled as voters are entitled to vote through postal ballots.
The Delhi Election Commission had set up counters in each of the seven parliamentary constituencies on the polling day to assist those who were issued postal ballots.
In 2009, only 532 officials had cast vote through postal ballots. This figure had increased to 45,144 in the 2013 Delhi assembly elections.
According to guidelines, postal ballots can be used by service voters, special voters, wives of service voters and special voters and voters on election duty.
Service voters include security personnel serving outside the state while special voters are those who are employed in offices of President, the Vice-President, governors of states and ministers of the Union or of states.
Wives of security personnel, deployed outside their states, are also entitled to cast their votes through postal ballots.
Delhi had recorded its highest-ever voter turnout of 65.09 per cent in the past three decades. The EC officials said the percentage of polling may go up slightly after all EDCs and postal ballots are received.
In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage for Delhi was 51.85 per cent, while the highest voter turnout ever in the city in Lok Sabha polls was 71.3 per cent, recorded in the elections held after the Emergency was lifted in 1977. (PTI)
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