Thiruvananthapuram: The plan to provide special postal ballots to COVID positive patients and those in quarantine at their respective place of dwelling has run into trouble.
Realizing the limitations in executing the plan, the State Election Commission has now asked such voters to apply themselves for special postal votes. After casting the special vote, the ballot should be sent back to returning officers either by post or through representatives.
As per the original plan, the special ballots were to be provided to each voter in hospitals or houses by officials wearing PPE kits. However, of the 50,000-voters in the five districts, only less than 10,000 received the special ballots.
Chief Secretary Vishwash Mehta took up the matter with the State Election Commissioner V Bhaskaran on Saturday. The meeting observed that there was not much progress in providing special ballots to voters in hospitals and their houses. Under these circumstances, the commission directed that those voters should themselves apply for postal ballots.
The application form for the special ballot is uploaded on the Commission website.
The returning officer will examine the application and send the special ballot papers to them. After casting the vote, the postal ballot and declaration form should be pasted in the envelope and sent either by post or through a representative to the returning officer.
The ballot should reach the returning officer before 8 am on December 16.
No postal charges will be levied for sending a special ballot. The postal department will put in place a system to ensure speedy distribution of special ballots.
The voters whose names figure in the certified list prepared by the health department till 3 pm on the penultimate day of polling, are not allowed to directly come to polling booths to cast their votes. The commission directed the collectors to issue orders entrusting the responsibility of certifying the declaration form with health inspectors apart from the gazetted officers.
Amendment that didn’t work out
The state election commission had recommended an amendment to the existing rules whereby COVID positive patients and those in quarantine will be able to apply for a postal ballot and the returning officer would send the same to them either through post or through a special representative.
It is alleged that even though the state government put forward a proposal for sending officials to homes and quarantine centres for getting the votes polled, it could not be implemented due to unavailability of the required number of staff and PPE kits.
In addition, the officials could not collect the certified lists of such voters and locate them.
