Behind Opposition postal ballot concern, Election Commission rule change in 2019

“Under no circumstances, should the results of all the rounds of the EVM counting be announced before finalising the postal ballot counting,” stated the EC’s Handbook for Counting Agents in February 2019. Now, the postal ballot counting starts 30 minutes before the EVM counting, but does not have to be completed before the EVMs.

After the 2019 elections, the EC decided to tweak the guidelines as the number of postal ballots had gone up, especially after the introduction of the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS), and the mandatory counting of VVPAT slips of five randomly selected polling stations per Assembly constituency or Assembly segment.

In directions to all Chief Electoral Officers on May 18, 2019, the EC withdrew its earlier guideline that the penultimate round of EVM counting should be taken up only after postal ballots counting is complete. Instead, it said, the EVM counting “can go on irrespective of the stage of postal ballot counting”. Once the EVM counting is complete, the VVPAT slips can be counted. It also revised the rule for mandatory re-counting of postal ballots. Earlier, postal ballots were recounted if the margin of victory was less than the total number of postal ballots. Now, the postal ballots that are rejected as invalid during counting would be re-verified if the margin is less than the number of such ballots.

While a total of 22.71 lakh postal ballots were received during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections or 0.37% of the total 60.76 crore valid votes, the number of postal ballots is expected to be higher this time. Apart from service voters like defence forces, who are deployed outside their home states, the EC in October 2019 introduced postal ballots for essential service workers, those above 80 years of age and persons with disabilities. Since then, the age limit has been increased to 85 years for seniors and Covid-19 patients have been included in the list of those eligible for postal ballots.

As the guidelines stand today, as per the 2023 Handbook for Counting Agents, “After 30 minutes of commencement of postal ballot counting, the EVM counting can start and continue irrespective of the stage of postal ballot counting. Once the EVM counting is completed, the VVPAT slip counting can also start.”

With the number of postal ballots expected to increase, the Opposition parties have expressed concern over the counting process. In their letter to the EC, they pointed out that the winning margin in the 2020 Bihar elections was 12,700 votes for the state, while the number of postal ballots was 52,000. “In fact, there was a huge outcry in Bihar as it was the first election (which was conducted after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic) where the postal ballots were counted at the end of the counting of EVM votes,” the INDIA parties said.

They asked the EC to withdraw the May 2019 letter and to issue directions in consonance with Rule 54A of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, which says “the returning officer shall first deal with the postal ballot papers…”