Over 12,000 postal ballots received

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, May 17: The number of voters polled in elections held in the State through postal ballots has considerably increased this Lok Sabha election following introduction of Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) by the Election Commission of India.
Electronically transmitted postal ballots were sent to record officers of armed forces so that 20,185 service voters could exercise their right to vote in the Lok Sabha election held in the State on April 11 and April 18.
So far, 12,887 postal ballots have been received and the number is expected to rise, informed a source.
The source said that postal ballots received till 8 am of May 23 will be taken in account in the counting of votes.
The respective ROs have so far received 7350 postal ballots in Outer Manipur PC and 5537 postal ballots in Inner Manipur PC.
ETPBS enables monitoring of the number of postal ballots sent by ROs to record offices as well as the number of postal ballots returned from different armed forces units.
There would be separate counting halls for counting postal ballots. Postal ballots are encased in three envelopes and they are embossed with different QR codes.
All the QR codes would be scanned for authenticity in the presence of ROs concerned before the postal ballots are put aside for counting.
Contrary to the earlier plan of installing a CCTV camera for each counting table, there would be only two CCTV cameras in each counting hall as per a new instruction of the Election Commission of India.