CHENNAI: Facing criticism and even a formal complaint against the counting procedure that Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner - who is also the district electoral officer of Chennai - announced, the civic body issued a clarification stating that the counting of postal ballots will be taken up first before the votes from the EVMs are counted.
The clarification issued late on Friday night came hours after the ruling DMK lodged a formal complaint with Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo.
What led to the complaint was a press release issued by Corporation Commissioner J Radhakrishnan that said postal ballots would be counted at the end of counting EVM votes.
In the complaint, DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi cited the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, that mandates counting postal ballots first. This being the procedure being followed for decades, the DEO's press note has created confusion among officials and party functionaries involved in the counting process, he said.
Bharathi asked the Election Commission to issue an instruction to all returning officers and also a public announcement for the benefit of counting agents of all political parties and candidates regarding the legal and correct procedure to be adopted during the counting of votes.
A few hours later, the Corporation issued a statement admitting that as per the handbook of returning officers says that postal ballots, including those polled using electronically transmitted postal ballot system (ETPBS), should be counted, announced and entered in the results sheet in Form 20 first. The votes polled using EVMs will be counted only after 30 minutes of commencing postal ballot counting, it added.
"Hence, it is clarified that the postal ballot counting (including ETPBS) will be taken up first and only after 30 minutes, the [counting of] votes from EVMs will be started. All instructions of Election Commission of India will be scrupulously followed," the Chennai Corporation said in a social media post, tagging not only the ECI but also the official handle of the DMK.