Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition parties have approached the election commission seeking urgent steps to check the alleged malpractices involved in the postal ballot voting. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and BJP state president K Surendran submitted representations to chief electoral officer Teeka Ram Meena, demanding foolproof action from the part of the commission.
Addressing a news conference, the opposition leader said the UDF succeeded to an extent in scuttling bogus voting attempts. “However, widespread malpractices are now taking place in connection with postal ballots. Fraud is suspected in the postal votes of around 3.5 lakh polling officials. Those who had cast their votes in specially arranged polling booths have started getting ballot papers through post. If they cast their postal votes, it would lead to rigging of the election. What happens in the case of postal votes are unpardonable lapses,” Chennithala said.
There should have been a mechanism to eliminate the name of polling officials who already voted in specially set up polling booths. EC officials have committed a grave mistake and it should be probed whether the lapses were intentional, he added.
K Surendran in his complaint said there were gross procedural lapses in the conduct, collection and handling of postal votes. The postal votes were collected without adhering to norms. Instead of sealed covers, ballots were collected in bags in several booths. “It has been learnt that unused postal ballots are misused on a large scale. The commission should take immediate steps to clear the apprehensions of political parties and candidates in this regard,” Surendran said.
“The commission should specify how many postal ballot papers were printed in each assembly segment and how many such ballots were distributed among persons above 80 years of age, physically disabled and Covid patients. How many among them did cast their votes and how many more unused ballots are in the EC’s custody,” he said and wanted the commission to keep vigil against attempts to topple the democratic election process.