MADURAI

A large number of the roughly 13,800 polling personnel designated for duty at the polling stations were yet to receive their postal ballots or Election Duty Certificates (EDCs) for casting their votes.

With the third and penultimate round of training for the polling personnel on Saturday, they were expecting to receive their postal ballots or EDCs.

While officials posted for duty within their parliamentary constituency can cast their vote in the EVMs in the polling stations they are assigned to with the help of EDCs, those deployed outside their parliamentary constituency can cast their votes only through postal ballots.

An official from the School Education Department (SED), who has his vote in Madurai East assembly segment but has been posted for election duty in Melur, said that he did not receive his EDC.

“I have made four requests. Most of the people, who underwent training with me in Melur today, have not received their EDCs or postal ballots,” he said.

Similarly, an Associate Professor from a government college, who has been assigned duty in Tirupparankundram assembly segment, which comes under Virudhunagar parliamentary constituency, said that he was not given postal ballot.

“I have my vote in Madurai north constituency. I received phone calls from election officials asking for my details, but I am yet to receive the postal ballot. The situation is the same for almost all those from Madurai north constituency, who attended poll training at Mannar Tirumalai Naicker College on Saturday,” he said.

In some cases, polling personnel expressed disappointment that they were asked to collect their EDCs from Collector’s office or one of the zonal offices of Madurai Corporation.

“We were expecting to receive it during our training. However, I received a call asking me to collect my EDC from a zonal office late in the evening,” a teacher, deployed for poll duty, said.

The last round of training is on April 17, following which the polling personnel will have to immediately report to their polling stations.

“We have been told that we will receive postal ballots or EDCs through post. But we are not hopeful,” the official from SED said.