THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The postal voting facility, for citizens above 80 years and persons with disabilities, that was implemented for the first time in Bihar elections this year, will be introduced in the upcoming Kerala Assembly polls as well, Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena has said. “The postal voting facility for senior citizens and differently- abled persons will be optional. Such voters have to make a request to the Election Commission for postal ballots if they do not want to visit the booth to cast their votes.
The ballots will be sent by post and also received in the same manner,” Meena told TNIE. Asked about Covid patients and those in quarantine, Meena said the Election Commission will come out with a ‘separate mechanism’ for voting by such electors based on the feedback the Election Commission has received from the assembly polls in Bihar.
The Chief Electoral Officer had held a meeting through videoconferencing with various district collectors the other day to assess poll preparedness. The general consensus in the meeting was to conduct the assembly election in two phases.
“Due to the norm that a polling booth should not have more than 1,000 voters, new booths will have to be set up. This would take the total number of booths to around 40,000. Since it would require the deployment of additional manpower and security, it would not be advisable to carry out the election in a single phase,” he said.