In the Rajasthan Assembly polls, apart from service voters, employees working in eight other departments have been provided the facility to vote through postal ballots by the Election Commission of India. Media workers have been included in this category for the first time in Rajasthan. In this regard, the Election Commission has issued a notification. Employees from the departments of electricity-water, roadways-metro, dairy, fire fighting, medical education, health, and media workers are included in this.
Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta stated that according to the orders issued by the Election Commission, this year, journalists have been included in the category of service voters for the first time. So far, the facility of service voting was only available to employees deployed on election duty, and soldiers associated with the army or paramilitary.
The Chief Electoral Officer said, “All these mandatory service personnel have now been provided with the facility of postal ballots. The concerned departments will inform how many such employees they have, who will be on duty on the day of voting, and they may be deprived of voting on that day. Based on that list, the returning officer will issue Form 12-D and the facility of voting through the ballot paper will be provided to them at the facilitation centre.”