Panaji: An all political parties conclave — sans the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party — held here on Thursday criticised “the mess that has been created due to the indiscretion of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which has kept the voting lines for postal ballots open for over 35 days”.
The conclave, attended by senior representatives of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the MGP-GSM-SS alliance, and other regional outfits — like Goa Forward Party, Goa Suraj and Goa Vikas Party — also discussed issues regarding the recent conduct of Assembly elections in the State.
Girish Chodankar, secretary, All India Congress Committee (AICC), said the parties arrived at a consensus that a team from the ECI should sent to look into the “lapses” in the postal ballot process, and into a special felicitation camp which was held by State election authorities for casting postal ballots.
The parties demanded that polling by Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) should be kept for a day for service voters instead of postal ballots.
A statement issued by the parties at the end of the conclave said the conference backed the postal balloting mechanism, “as it provides opportunity to the service voter to exercise their right to vote.”
However, it blamed the ECI for “making mockery” of the process.
‘Tampering the process’
The conclave was also critical of a special camp for postal voting, organised by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the State, which, “violates the guidelines for the conduct of postal ballot and which amounts to tampering with the already laid out process for postal balloting.”
The conference also demanded the ECI and CEO to explain under what provisions of law or guidelines the camp was conducted.
The conclave noted that postal balloting continues for up to two hours before the commencement of counting of votes. However, the parties said that once the ECI breaks the convention of counting of votes immediately after the polls, it is it’s duty to fix a rational and reasonable schedule for postal balloting.
The statement issued by parties said, “The current manner of postal balloting cannot be justified on any rational ground.”
