The National Trade Union Confederation (NTUC) has reversed its decision to scrap Same Day Counting for the upcoming general election. In a statement yesterday, NTUC President Narendranath Gopee said that during his last meeting with the Election Commission (EC), he made three proposals. One key suggestion was that ballot boxes should remain at polling stations after voting ends, rather than being moved for counting the following day.
“The Election Commission made it clear that if ballot boxes were to stay in one place, additional police officers would be needed to guard all the rooms where voting took place. As a result, we proposed moving the ballot boxes to a single room so counting could be done the next day, reducing the need for extra police officers and political agents,” said the NTUC president.
He also recommended that the same staff members should conduct the next-day count, given the Election Commission’s difficulty in recruiting personnel. “We understand why officials are reluctant to work during elections, due to previous allegations of electoral fraud and the blame placed on them. If the Election Commission had provided better support to these officials, the situation might have been different. However, it is feasible to keep all the ballot boxes in one location and have the same staff conduct the count,” he added.
Addressing concerns about staffing, Gopee emphasized that it should not be a problem. “The staffing issue isn’t really the Election Commission’s responsibility. If the Commission needs 22,000 civil servants for the elections, it just needs to request the necessary staff from the Prime Minister’s Office or the Secretary for Public Service,” the union leader insisted.
Courtesy of Le Mauricien.
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