More conventional ballots get rejected in Haa and Paro from the records of the envelope A opening yesterday.

Of the total 268 conventional postal ballots received, about 11 postal ballot votes were rejected at the counting centre in Haa yesterday.

One of the Returning Officers (RO) at Haa, Dorji Rinchen said that most of the ballots were rejected because voters had sealed their identity declaration certificate (IDC) with the ballot paper inside envelope B.

Some ballots also had the names of the demkhong in place of the dzongkhag and vice-versa. Most of such trivial matters were disregarded in consultation with the four representatives of the parties. However, even if one representative disagreed to accept the ballot, it was nullified.

A postal ballot that was supposed to be sent to Sangbaykha constituency had reached the Bji-Katsho-Eusu constituency.

None of the 535 postal ballots from the facilitation booths were rejected yesterday.

Dorji Rinchen said that the facilitation booth postal ballots were not rejected because people were trained in the booth regarding the processes. “Moreover, electoral officials will be held responsible if they make mistakes.”

Adequate training was provided to have minimal mistakes, he said.

There will be a total of 22 polling stations in Haa, eight in Bji-Katsho constituency and 14 in Sangbaykha. It has the least voter base after Gasa.

The counting of the postal ballots would start around 2pm today.

There are about 32 polling stations in Paro.

RO Sherab Gyeltshen said that of the 538 conventional postal ballots received; about 16 were rejected in the Wangchang constituency in Paro yesterday. “Most postal ballots had made mistakes in CID number which didn’t tally. The other main reason is the person who had voted had become the competent witness. There should be someone else for the witness.”

In Paro too, none were rejected from the 815 postal ballots cast at the facilitation booths.

Sherab Gyeltshen said that the rejection must be because people do not take it seriously. “Election Commission had been telling people time and again about the processes of sending postal ballots. Even for registration, they don’t register and afterwards say they didn’t know.”

He said that most become ignorant and they don’t ask people who know about the process.

“Many say that they lost their voter card. But most misplace it. They come to create another one because it’s free. However, if it was an ATM card they would take good care of it.”

There will be 15 polling stations in the constituency that include two extended polling stations, which are provided for areas with less than 250 voters.

RO Jigme Dorji said that about 11 postal ballots were rejected out of the 480 conventional postal ballots. About 766 facilitation booth postal ballots were received.

Some of the most common reasons, he said, were competent witness not being a registered voter. “The mismatch of competent witness’ name and CID and the envelope A without IDC were other reasons.”

However, due to the similar name about 14 facilitation booth postal ballots got rejected from a total of about 564 postal ballots received in Sangbaykha constituency in Haa yesterday. It was learnt that almost six postal ballots’ envelope A were addressed to Sangbaykha but IDC was from other demkhong. About eight others had been addressed to Shompangkha but delivered to Sangbaykha.

Of about 252 conventional postal ballots received, about 16 got rejected.

Rinchen Zangmo | Paro

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