Postal voting begins in Chennai, activists flag ‘limited coverage’
CHENNAI: The postal balloting for the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Chennai commenced on Monday. The District Election Office (DEO) has formed 67 special teams to undertake the postal voting process which will carry on till Friday.There are 74,121 voters eligible for postal voting in Chennai, among which, 63,751 are above the age of 85 and 10,370 are persons with disabilities (PwD). The DEO has issued around 38,552 12D forms and received back around 5,000 forms. A total of 4,568 postal ballots (4,175 elders and 363 PwD voters) have been issued so far in Chennai.
Meanwhile, a few activists have raised concerns that not all voters with disabilities were reached out to by the election officials. However, the officials maintain that the postal ballots were issued to all those who expressed interest.
Activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar said only a few of the PwD voters were reached by the government. “Many voters I know had to personally reach out to officials to participate in this process. Still, a majority of voters were left out due to so many restrictions. The ECI should make the process for postal voting much more smooth,” she further added.