Lok Sabha elections 2024: Postal ballots will be counted first, confirms ECI day after Oppn moves poll body
- Day after the Opposition moved the ECI urging it to first count postal ballots, CEC Rajiv Kumar said the vote counting will begin will postal ballots
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday, June 3, held a press conference on the eve of vote counting in the Lok Sabha elections 2024. Highlighting several historic milestones, the EC announced that India set a world record with 642 million registered voters in this polling season. A record-breaking 312 million women also participated in the voting process in the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections 2024.
CEC Rajiv Kumar also addressed the Opposition's key demand of counting postal ballots first, saying the process of vote counting on June 4 will begin with postal ballots only. “Postal ballot counting will start first. After only half an hour, we will start EVM counting. There is no doubt about it,” Rajiv Kumar said.
The seven-phase 2024 vote began on April 19 and was held in scorching summer heat in many parts of the country, with temperatures rising to nearly 50 degrees Celsius in some north and northwestern regions. Also Read | Exit poll 2024 frenzy could be followed by profit booking after results, focus to shift on Budget, say experts
Addressing the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said, “We have created a world record of 642 million voters. This is 1.5 times voters of all G7 countries and 2.5 times voters of 27 countries in EU.” He also gave a standing ovation to all voters who took part in Lok Sabha elections 2024. Also Read | Lok Sabha elections 2024: ‘Very hopeful our results will be totally opposite to exit polls,’ says Sonia Gandhi
The election commissioner also said that 2024 Lok Sabha elections saw fewer re-elections as compared to 540 in 2019 polls. Raji Kumar said, “Due to the meticulous work of the election personnel we ensured fewer repolls - we saw 39 repolls in Lok Sabha polls 2024 as opposed to 540 in 2019 and 25 out of 39 repolls were in 2 States only.”
Rajiv Kumar said voter turnout in Jammu & Kashmir was the highest in the last four decades in this Lok Sabha elections as he also mentioned that violence was not witnessed in this election. “All development work used to stop during MCC, EC gave permission within 48 hours of applications in 95-98 per cent projects,” he said. Also Read | Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Mumbai Traffic Police imposes restrictions on heavy vehicles on June 4
“Election Commission made a record seizure record of almost ₹10,000 crores during this election. This is nearly 3 times the value seized in 2019...Local teams were empowered to do their work,” says CEC Rajiv Kumar, adding, “This is one of the General Elections where we have not seen violence. This required two years of preparation.”
The election commissioner also took a jibe at the “laapataa gentlemen” jibe at the Opposition saying, “We were always here, never went missing.”
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Business NewsElectionsLok Sabha elections 2024: Postal ballots will be counted first, confirms ECI day after Oppn moves poll body
First Published:3 Jun 2024, 02:01 PM IST
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