SHIMLA: Expressing party's concern over the delay and alleged tampering in postal ballot papers, Himachal Pradesh Congress President and Lok Sabha MP Pratibha Singh has urged the State Election Commission to ensure the return of all postal ballot papers. She has also asked the commission to instruct all election returning officers to expedite the work immediately.
Expressing concern over the slow return of postal ballots over telephone, Pratibha Singh urged State Chief Electoral Officer Manish Garg to speed up this work.
She said she has received information that despite the postal ballot papers being issued to some employees on election duty, the concerned employees have not received them.
Where these ballot papers have gone missing, she asked. "It should be thoroughly investigated".
She said it should also be ensured that there is no tampering with postal ballots in any way.
Pratibha Singh said she is also getting information that some BJP leaders are pressurizing the Returning Officers to vote in favor of BJP by obtaining postal voters' lists from them.
This is the reason why the employees are not taking any interest in casting their vote.
She said that in a democracy any kind of power pressure on the voters is the murder of democracy, so the commission needs to keep a close watch on the entire process while exercising its constitutional rights with full responsibility.