Election Results 2024: What is the EC’s 2019 rule change for counting postal ballots and what are the Opposition’s concerns?

The counting of votes polled across 543 constituencies for the Lok Sabha elections has begun on June 4 with postal ballots. In a letter to the ECI, the Opposition leaders highlighted that the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 states that the Returning Officer has to begin the process of counting postal ballots first. For constituency-wise real-time updates, visit our Election Results page 2019 rule change The concerns raised by the Opposition stem from a change in the ECI’s guidelines in 2019 for counting postal ballots. The ECI’s Handbook for Counting Agents in February 2019 stipulated, “Under no circumstances, should the results of all the rounds of the EVM counting be announced before finalising the postal ballot counting.” But this guideline was changed in 2019 as the number of postal ballots had shot up after the introduction of the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System, and the mandatory counting of VVPAT slips of five randomly selected polling stations. Accordingly, the poll body was asked to withdraw its May 2019 circular and issue directions under Rule 54A of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, which mandates the counting of postal ballots first.