Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Voters Above 85 Years, Disabled Persons Can Now Vote From Home

The Election Commission will allow voting from home for electors above 85 years of age and persons with disabilities with 40% benchmark disability.

Volunteers and wheel chairs at polling stations, transport facility for PwD and elderly and Saksham app for PwDs to avail facilities at booths, are the steps the poll body will take during the elections.

Minimum basic facilities like drinking water and toilets will be made available at all polling booths.

There are 88.4 lakh PwD voters, 2.18 lakh centenarians, 82 lakh senior citizen voters above the age of 85 years, according to the poll body.

Responding to a question raised by a journalist during the press conference on Saturday, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the postal ballot facility will be made available for journalists covering elections in other constituencies.

As per rules, postal ballot facility is available for special voters, service voters (like defence, police and paramilitary forces), officials on election duty and electors subjected to preventive detention.

Counting of postal ballot paper starts half an hour before counting of votes on EVMs on the day of the results.

India will vote to elect a new government starting April 19 and the results will be announced on June 4, as the Election Commission kicked off the poll process in the world's biggest democracy.

The Lok Sabha elections will span over seven phases from April through early June, according to the schedule announced on Saturday. Phase one will begin on April 19, and will end with the final seventh phase on June 1.

With over 10.5 lakh polling stations across the country, around 1.5 lakh officials will aid in the conduct of the general elections.

Nearly 97 crore Indians will be eligible to vote in this year's Lok Sabha elections, according to the EC. The poll body has also reported that over 2 crore young voters in the age group of 18 to 29 years have been added to voters' list.