Delegations from the INDIA bloc and the BJP met the Election Commission one after the other on Sunday raising concerns about counting day.

The INDIA bloc delegation went first to point out that a rule to complete the counting of postal ballots before those of the electronic voting machines appears to have been done away with by the EC in 2019.

The memorandum said: “However, as per ECI letter number 470/2019/SDR (dt. 18.05.2019), your commission considered the fact that the counting of postal ballots would require additional time — due to the introduction of ETPBS (electronically transmitted postal ballot system), casting of postal ballot by election duty staff etc. and requirement of mandatory QR code reading for ETPBS.

“In view of the same, your commission withdrew the instruction that the penultimate round of EVM counting should be taken up only after the completion of the postal ballot counting. The aforementioned direction of the ECI is now even reflected in the ECI’s handbooks for the returning officers, candidates and counting agents, i.e., the direction that the penultimate round of EVM counting should be taken up only after completion of postal ballot counting has been removed,” they said.

The EC is yet to respond to the delegation’s demand: “Therefore, we urge the hon’ble commission to issue urgent directions in consonance with the object of Conduct of Election Rules 1961 and withdraw the ECI letter number 470/2019/SDR (dt. 18.05.2019) with direction the returning officers to complete the counting of postal ballots and declare the results on the returning officers’ table, before the final counting of EVMs.”

The BJP raised objections to unidentified civil society groups passing a resolution here on May 28 to protest “if the election process is perceived to violate the Constitution”. The party asked the EC to enhance “monitoring and security measures” and “issue a public statement affirming the integrity of the electoral process”.