the Presidential poll today +ensuring uniformity in marking of ballots +NEW DELHI: The Election Commission will use unique, serial-numbered special pens with violet ink for marking ballots inMarking the ballot with personal pens, which will be collected from the voting MPs/MLAs by a polling staff before they enter the voting chamber, may lead to invalidation of the vote, the EC said on Sunday. There are a total 32 polling stations, including one in Room no 62 of Parliament House and 31 in each state assembly.The ballot papers will be in 2 colours - green for use by MPs and pink for use by the MLAs.The EC has permitted 14 Rajya Sabha MPs and 41 Lok Sabha MPs to vote from various state assemblies. These mostly include Trinamool MPs who will be voting in the West Bengal assembly. Union minister Uma Bharati, who represents Jhansi in Lok Sabha, will vote in UP.The ballot papers for the Presidential poll will have two columns, with the first one containing names of candidates and 2nd column for marking preferences by electors.The ballot paper will be in English and Hindi for use by MPs and in official languages of the State and English for use by MLAs.A total of 33 Observers will be deployed by EC to oversee conduct of presidential elections. While two observers will be stationed in Parliament, one each will watch polling in other 31 polling stations.

Source: Times of India July 17, 2017 01:14 UTC