The Dehradun district election officer/ district magistrate R Rajesh Kumar held a meeting with the officials on Thursday to discuss the registration of votes through postal ballots for absentee voters of the district in view of the upcoming assembly elections. He said that absentee voters can register their votes through postal ballots from February 8 to 10.

 He said that the absentee voting system has been introduced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to register the votes through postal ballot for those serving in essential services to ensure the wider participation of people in the electoral process. The DM has also instructed the department concerned to nominate one nodal officer to facilitate the voting procedure of absentee voters.

He directed the nodal officers to raise awareness among the employees of various departments concerned about the facility of postal ballot provided by ECI.  He directed the ROs to get all the eligible absentee voters to fill the application form Form-12D with all requisite information and get verified the same from the respective nodal officers within the given time.  He said that the voting through postal ballot for absentee voters is scheduled on three consecutive days- February 8, 9 and 10 from 9 am to 5 pm.  He directed all ROs to make necessary arrangements at the polling stations for the voters on these three days as per the guidelines of the election commission.

The chief development officer(CDO) Nitika Khandelwal, additional district magistrate (Finance and Revenue) KK Mishra, ADM (administration) Shiv Kumar Baranwal, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Manish Kumar along with the ROs were also present in the meeting.