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Poll volunteers fear of missing their votes again

Volunteers are urging the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take necessary measures so that these first-time voters get a fair chance to vote.

Hyderabad: Students who are volunteering in the webcasting teams for the upcoming elections are worried that they might lose their voting rights this time as well. Hundreds of students could not avail their postal ballot power despite going through all the paperwork procedures in the recent Telangana state Assembly elections. Volunteers are urging the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take necessary measures so that these first-time voters get a fair chance to vote.

Mr Guntur Kiran, a webcast volunteer, said, “In the Assembly elections, most of the webcast volunteers who were first-time voters did not get a chance to vote through postal ballot, either due to lack of awareness or of proper guidance from the authorities concerned. This time, we want the Election Commission to ensure that we get our postal ballot papers and that our votes are not wasted.”

Some students did not even go through the procedure due to a lack of guidance. A volunteer on condition of anonymity said, “We were not even duly informed about the postal ballot process and by the time we learnt about it, the last date had passed.”

This time, however, students have been informed about the postal ballot system in the recent training session that was held for the webcasting team on 23rd March.

When DC contacted GHMC officials, they said that the students need to fill in all the details and forms carefully and that if they did not do so, then their application could get rejected. “We have instructed the students on the procedure of the postal ballot in the recent training session and we're hoping that everybody casts their vote through the postal ballot this time,” said the official.

Many volunteers have already submitted their Form 12 to the GHMC officials who will be on election duty.

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