New Delhi, Apr 9 (IANS): A total of 45,383 Election Duty Certificates (EDCs) have been issued to government officials, deployed for the April 10 Lok Sabha election in Delhi, an Election Commission official said Tuesday.

The EDCs will make the government officials eligible to cast their votes if they are posted for poll duty in their own constituency.

"EDC provision did not exist earlier. Government officials, deployed in the same parliamentary constituency, will use EDC for voting while the rest will use postal ballots," the official said.

He added the poll panel has also issued 25,897 postal ballots to police personnel and 3,478 postal ballots to civil officials so they can vote even if they are not deployed in their own constituency.

Earlier, government officials on poll duty were allowed to exercise their franchise only through postal ballots.

"SMSes are being sent to all government officials so they can use their voting right," he said.