Postal ballot for PwD voters, COVID-19 infected, senior citizens above 80 years

Feb. 27: The schedule for the forthcoming Assam Assembly Elections, 2021 was declared by Sunil Arora, 23rd Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) in an important press conference on Friday evening. Assam will go for the assembly polls in three phases on 27 March, 1 April and 6 April. This time certain new initiatives like POSTAL BALLOT for PwD Voters, COVID-19 infected and Senior Citizens above 80 years in view of COVID-19. Option of Postal Ballot facility has been extended to the electors of following categories:

(1) Electors, who are marked as Persons with Disabilities (PwD)
(2) Electors above the age of 80 years
(3) Electors employed in notified Essential services
(4) Electors who are COVID- 19 positive/ suspect as certified by competent authority and are in quarantine (home/ institutional)
(5) By a notification dated 22.10.2019 of the Ministry of Law & Justice, the Conduct of Election Rules have been amended on the recommendation of the Commission to enable “absentee voters” to vote by postal ballot. Electors on duty in polling station as may be notified by the Commission under section 60 (c) of R.P. Act 1951, electors who are above 80 years of age and the electors marked as Persons with Disabilities in the Electoral Roll will have the option to seek postal ballot paper for casting their vote.
(6) All such voters in the above categories will have to apply for the Postal Ballot within 5 days of notification for election in their Assembly Constituencies, if they wish to use the option of Postal Ballot for voting.

(7) All eligible electors will be given an application form by the BLOs who will then collect the filled in form with elector’s choice – whether he wants Postal Ballot or he will go to the Polling Station to vote. A polling team comprising 2 polling officials along with 1 videographer and security will then go to the elector’s house along with a Voting Compartment and get the elector to vote on the Postal Ballot maintaining complete secrecy of vote. Candidates will be provided the list of these electors in advance and will also be sent the schedule of voting and the route chart the polling parties will take so that they can send their representatives to witness the postal ballot will then be stored securely by the Returning Officer.
(8) This is an optional facility and does not involve any Postal Department mailing kind of arrangement.
(9) The Commission has directed to the Chief Electoral Officers of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry to take necessary steps for the dissemination of information and facilitation to the above categories of Voters.
(10) This facility of Absentee Voter status was provided for the first time in the country to PwD and 80+ voters of total 7 Assembly Constituencies in Jharkhand and was also extend this facility in 243 Assembly Constituencies in Bihar.