MCD polls: In a first, ballot paper voting begins for civic elections

These voters include more than 100,00 civic officials and 40,000 police officers on election duty, over 204,301 voters aged above 80 years and differently abled people

With one day left before the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election on Sunday, those voters who have been given the option to cast their vote through ballot paper, have begun doing so. These voters include more than 100,00 civic officials and 40,000 police officers on election duty, over 204,301 voters aged above 80 years and differently-abled people, officials from the state election commission (SEC) said on Friday.

Polling for MCD elections will take place on December 4, and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 7. (PTI)

This process will continue till Tuesday, December 6, and the votes will be counted on Wednesday, officials added.

An SEC official involved in the process said the administration is ensuring that voting is carried out from home for these categories of voters and their ballot papers were distributed during their training for polling duty. There are 16,000 polling parties and 950 counting parties who have undergone three rounds of training between November 24 and December 2. “The last round of the training was staff on election duty,” the official added.

Voter turnout in the MCD elections has been traditionally low with Delhi registering 43.24% turnout in 2007, 53.39% in 2012 and 53.55% in the 2017 election. In comparison, the parliamentary and Assembly elections in Delhi see much higher turnout with 66.4% in 2014, 67.13% in 2015, 67.4% in 2019 and 62.59% in 2020.

An SEC official said the expansion in scope of ballot paper-based voting during the training sessions in an attempt to increase voter participation. “These officials were asked to indicate their vote and bring the closed envelope in the next training session. According to regulations, all the ballot papers that reach the counting centres and strong rooms before counting day are eligible to be counted,” the SEC official said.

Each returning officer has formed a five-member team for ensuring ballot paper-based voting. “These teams are visiting the houses of elderly people and differently-abled voters. Each team comprises a Booth Level Officer, a gazetted officer, police officer, civil defence volunteer and a videographer. It is not mandatory for such special categories to use ballots but it depends on their choice. This is the first time this facility has been extended from assembly/parliamentary elections to municipality elections,” the official said.

In the 2022 municipal elections, Delhi has 14,505,322 eligible voters of which 6,610,858 are women, 7,893,403 are men and 1,061 are in the ‘Other’ category. At least 229 voters are over 100 years old, 204,301 are between 80 and 100 years of age and 95,458 voters will be eligible to vote for the first time. In the 2017 MCD election, 13,423,869 voters were eligible to vote and 53.55% turnout was observed.