The first phase of parliamentary election got underway today with the commencement of postal voting which will see around 700,00 state sector employees casting their votes.
A total of 753,037 had applied for postal voting of which 705,085 were accepted while 47,952 were rejected, the Election Commission said.
The application had been rejected for various reasons including inaccuracies in filing forms, inadequate information etc.
Postal voting for staff of offices of the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) who are assigned the task of supervising compliance with health guidelines on COVID-19 at work stations where postal voting will take place from Tuesday to Friday (June 14-16), will cast their votes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.
Marking of postal votes for other state sector employees will take place over the next four days.
Those who fail to mark their postal voting on the assigned days due to unavoidable circumstances can do so on 20 and 21 July at the Election office of the district where the certifying officer of their application is located.
The EC emphasized that postal voting must be conducted in keeping with the COVID-19 guidelines such as social distancing , wearing face masks and hand sanitization while voters were also encouraged to bring a black or blue pen to mark the ballot paper.
Those who are unable to cast their postal vote on these dates can do so on July 20 and 21 at the district election offices in the district where their workplace is situated.
State officers who would be engaged in election duties, public officials engaged in essential services and personnel of the armed forces, police and Civil Defence Force are entitled to postal voting.