The Election Commission of India (ECI) yesterday started to distribute and dispatch designated ballot boxes, ballot papers, special pens, and other sealed election materials to the State Legislative Assembly Secretariats including the National Capital Territory of Delhi and UT of Puducherry for the conduct of Presidential Election 2022 scheduled on July 18, 2022.

Who appointed these Observers, and why?

In order to assure safe and sealed delivery of election material necessary steps and monitoring actions have been taken by the Election Commission. The ECI appointed senior officers as observers to keep an eye on the whole procedure.

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ECI has appointed 37 Observers for overseeing the arrangements of polling and counting during elections. The Observers are senior IAS Officers of the rank of Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary, Government of India.

The Commission has deployed one Observer for overseeing polling at each of the 30 places of the poll in the State/UT Legislative Assemblies and 2 observers for Parliament House.

The designated Observers will take stock of election arrangements made for security and transportation of ballot boxes and election material by the Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) and ensure free and fair elections.

The Observers deputed at Parliament House will also oversee the counting process of votes on 21st July 2022.

What procedures are followed while sending out election materials?

The dispatch of election material to the respective state legislative assemblies is a  two-day exercise, and it is being conducted in a time-bound and secured manner under the supervision of Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey.

ECI mandates the collection of the materials from the ECI Headquarters at Delhi by AROs including one senior officer from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

Once they reach Delhi, officials are also assisted at the help desk at the Delhi Airport manned by the officials of the Election Commission of India, Civil Aviation, Delhi Police, and CISF.

Ballot boxes along with other essential election materials are handed over to the AROs under appropriate security and safety measures after complete inspection at Nirvachan Sadan, New Delhi.

Delhi Police teams escort the AROs while they come to collect the election material. The AROs return to their respective States/UTs on the same day as the collection of the election materials.

During the transportation, the Ballot Boxes fly on a separate air ticket in the front row of the aircraft beside the seat of the officer transporting the materials under personal supervision.

Once the officers with ballot boxes reach the state capitals, these are stored in previously sanitised and properly sealed strong rooms under strict Videography monitoring.

Ballot papers for Presidential Election are also stored and sealed along with. After the poll is over, the polled and sealed Ballot boxes and other election material have to be transported back to the Office of Returning Officer that is the Rajya Sabha Secretariat by the next available flight.

The boxes and other documents are carried personally in the aircraft cabins – never out of sight of accompanying officers.

The ECI has already issued specific guidelines for the conduct of polls and AROs and Observers are trained as such. A workshop for the RO, AROs & CEOs was also organized on June 13, 2022, at Vigyan Bhawan to brief them on all aspects of election procedure for the conduct of Presidential elections.