Vijayawada: As many as 28,591 voters aged over 85 years and specially-abled so far availed the home voting facility that began in AP on May 2. The process would conclude on May 8.
As the Election Commission of India announced the phased poll schedule on April 16 and introduced the home voting concept for the first time for certain category of people, teams of officials visited the voters aged over 85 years and also specially-abled persons up to April 22 and collected 12D forms from them.
Accordingly, 7,28,484 voters were identified to be eligible to avail home voting option; and, of them, only 28,591 opted for home voting which comes to just three per cent of voters from the total number of eligible voters.
The less percentage of voters opting for home voting indicates that the voters irrespective of their advanced age and disability are willing visit their polling booths concerned to cast their vote on May 13.
On the other hand, though the home voting is scheduled to start on May 1, it was delayed by a day and commenced on May 2 following the legal tangle involving Jana Sena seeking to reserve its Glass Tumbler symbol only for its nominees and not to allot it to independents and others from registered unrecognized political parties.
This resulted in delay in printing the ballot paper.
However, as ECI clarified on the issue by issuing an order subject to the acceptance of the AP High Court on Thursday, the state election authorities went ahead to print the ballot papers.
The state election authorities say that the home voting commenced in the districts where the ballot papers were printed.
