'Mr Ballot Box' to fly to Chandigarh ahead of Presidential polls

EC on Tuesday started dispatching designated ballot boxes, ballot papers, special pens, and other sealed election materials for the Prez poll

The Air Vistara flight UK637 from Delhi to Chandigarh on Tuesday had a special passenger — "Mr Ballot Box" — on one of the first row seats in its Premium Economy class.

The carrier issued a separate e-ticket and boarding pass for “Mr Ballot Box”, a steel box with a wooden cover that the Election Commission sent to Chandigarh from New Delhi to collect the ballots to be cast during the Presidential polls on July 18.

Not only Chandigarh, but all ballot boxes to be used for conducting presidential polls in all state capitals were flown from New Delhi on Tuesday or will fly on Wednesday, occupying the front row seats of the aircraft, just beside the seats of accompanying Assistant Returning Officers (AROs). The boxes will also fly back similarly to New Delhi on the next available flight after the polling is over on July 18. They will return for counting of votes at the office of the Returning Officer, the secretariat of the Rajya Sabha in Parliament Complex on July 21.

An EC official said that the poll panel did not let the carriers put ballot boxes in the cargo of the aircraft to make they would never go out of sight of the accompanying officers – both during the flight from New Delhi to the respective state capitals as well as for the return.

The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) replaced the ballot boxes for assembly and the Lok Sabha polls in the country long ago. But ballot boxes are still used in the presidential polls.

The EC started transporting ballot boxes used in presidential polls only by air in 2017, putting trains out of the process completely.

As the AROs started collecting the ballot boxes and the ballot papers for the respective states from the EC HQ Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi on Tuesday, the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar asked them to be vigilant and ensure strict adherence to the protocols and the guidelines for transportation and storage of the poll materials.