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Journalism of Courage
Haryana CM O.P. Chautala’s INLD has finally taken its battle against the Election Commission over the date of vote counting to the Supreme Court, which would have to decide on the issue.
The petition challenging the EC’s order of advancing the date of counting for Assembly elections in Haryana by three days was filed by Zile Singh, an INLD candidate today. It wants the counting to be held on February 27, as per the orignal schedule, so that votes of about 1.6 lakh armymen through postal ballots are taken into consideration.
According to the petitioner, the Commission had violated the basic Act governing the polls by declaring that postal ballots would be counted only if the difference in the margin of victory was likely to be changed by the number of postal ballots issued in a particular constituency.
‘‘The decision of the Election Commission is malafide and there also seems to be total non-application of mind,’’ the petition says.
The petition also said the EC had violated the law which enjoins upon the returning officer to first deal with the postal ballots. In this case, the EC wants the postal ballots to be counted after the results are declared in most constitutencies.
