2019 presidential election postal ballot papers sent to all post offices

Postal ballot papers for the 2019 presidential election were handed over to post offices across all 25 districts of the country, on Friday ( 18).

T he Nat i o n a l E l e c t i o n Commission ( NEC) said that 659,117 postal ballot papers were issued from 987 centres and handed over to post offices by Friday evening.

Representatives of political parties and presidential candidates were also invited to observe the process of issuing ballot papers for postal voting.

"More than 58,000 postal vote applications were rejected due to deficiencies in them," election officials stated.

An official at the Elections Secretariat stated that, more than 50 per cent of the rejections were because the applicants’ names did not appear in the 2018 Electoral Register, which is the register being used at this election.

Most of the other rejections had been because the applicants had failed to correctly record the serial number which appears in their registration forms ( BC forms) submitted for the 2018 Electoral Register. The serial numbers change every year, as new voters are added and taken off the register.

Postal voting for state employees and military personnel will take place on October 31 and November 1. Employe e s of district secretariats, election offices and the Police, will be able to cast their postal votes on November 4.

Voters whose postal vote applications were rejected, can still cast their ballots at polling centres on Election Day, provided their names appear in the 2018 Electoral Register.