Additional training ongoing to reduce invalid votes

Elections Commission (EC)’s Vice Chairperson Ismail Habeeb has stated that the commission is holding additional training for its staff ahead of the runoff in an effort to tackle the significant number of invalid votes counted in the first round of the presidential election.

The first round of the presidential election held on September 9^th saw a large number of invalid votes; a concern that has been raised by both the government and opposition parties.

Habeeb noted that the training has been ongoing for a week. In this regard, he detailed four-hour sessions are conducted for two groups of staff every day.

“We are mainly disseminating information regarding invalid votes and valid votes,” he added.

Habeeb, stressing all staff are given the same instructions while the law also reiterates the same, said some seniors acted in contradiction when declaring valid and invalid votes.

Therewith, he said the commission, for the runoff, will work on remedying such factors that led to high invalid votes.

Commenting on ‘#TeamBaathil’ campaign which blew up on Twitter recently – Habeeb said he does not pay much attention to such matters.

“I do not wish to respond to nonsensical talks. We do not even have the time for it. We are much busier than that. We are working on improving the proceedings in the runoff in light of observations made in the first round,” he said.

A total of 282,395 people were eligible to vote in the first round of the election. With 408 individuals set to turn 18 by September 30^th, 282.803 people are eligible to vote in the runoff this weekend.