Peelipose Thomas, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency, has alleged that certain election officials owing allegiance to pro-United Democratic Front employees’ unions intentionally sent postal ballots to the office address of the voters instead of the home address given in the voters’ list published by the Election Commission.
Request rejected In a letter to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nalini Netto, Mr. Thomas said that assistant returning officers here had rejected his request for a copy of the detailed list of postal ballots sent to the voters in the constituency.
Mr. Thomas urged the CEO to take necessary steps to ensure that the postal ballots reached their destination so that all eligible people could cast their votes before the counting begins at 8 a.m. on May 16.
Meanwhile, the CEO has directed the election officials here to provide the LDF candidate with a copy of the detailed list of postal votes in the constituency.
Earlier, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] had accused the government machinery of taking a partisan stand towards a section of the employees posted for election duty.
The party had alleged that many postal ballots dispatched from the election office here had failed to reach their destination even 11 days after the polling on April 10.
Many employees owing allegiance to pro-LDF unions had complained of non-receipt of postal ballots.
The employees also alleged that many of the postal ballots were returned to its senders after failing to find the addressee.
The election department here had reportedly dispatched as many as 1,500 postal ballots, besides issuing nearly 4,000 election duty certificates in April first week.
