Kerala - Kottayam   

Arrangements complete for polling today

By Our Staff Reporter

A woman polling official with the box containing electronic voting machine at the Indoor Stadium in Thrissur on Sunday.

KOTTAYAM, MAY 9. The arrangements for a free and fair conduct of the Lok Sabha elections are complete, district authorities have said.

Those who had been selected for election duty today arrived at their respective polling stations, received the materials and moved to the booths. The details of their area of operation was made public only this morning. The material for the booths in the town areas would arrive at the respective booths before 5 a.m. on Monday.

While the election material for Puthuppally and Kottayam were distributed from the Baker Memorial HSS and the Government HSS, Kottayam, that for Vazhoor and Changanassery were distributed from the two stations at the S.B. HSS, Changanassery. The materials for the Assembly segments of Vaikom and Kaduthuruthy were served from the Government HSS, Vaikom and the Government GHS, Vaikom. Those deputed to the Ettumanur segment collected their material from the Government HSS, Ettumanur.

According to authorities, 87 booths have been identified as `sensitive' in the district. Additional forces, patrolling and pickets have been provided at these booths, they said.

Alternate identity materials would be allowed for voters who are not able to produce their voter identity cards, authorities said. These included passport, driving license, PAN card, service identification cards of the Government employees, public sector employees and local-self Government employees, bank pass book of accounts operational before March 31, 2004, Kissan card, post office pass book, identity cards of students, land documents, ration card received before March 31, SC/ST/OBC certificates, pension documents, railway identity card, Freedom Fighter's identity cards, gun license, disability certificate etc.

However, these voters would have to give an undertaking in a specially drafted form, giving details of the reasons for not brining the voter identity cards, authorities said.

Mobile phones have been banned within 100 m of the polling booth.

Alappuzha: In Alappuzha, 15,02,456 voters are expected to exercise their franchise. The polling materials for the 1,505 polling booths in the district has been distributed to officials in charge of polling at various stations, said the release. Electronic polling machines would be used for voting in all polling stations, said the release. A total of 1,685 voting machines had been made ready for use, said the release.

The officials had reached the polling stations and arrangements at the polling stations would be completed by night, said the release.

Thrissur: In Thrissur, 8,336 officials have been posted for duties in the 1,860 polling stations located in 14 Assembly segments. About 800 officials have been posted for duties for the by-poll in Wadakkanchery Assembly segment, an official release said.

The polling materials were reached in most of the stations by noon and the officials were busy making arrangements in each booth. The polling will continue till 5 p.m.

The release said the counting of votes for the Mukundapuram and Thrissur Lok Sabha constituencies and the Wadakkanchery Assembly segment will begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday. While the District Collector, V. M. Gopala Menon, who is the returning officer for the two Lok Sabha seats will declare their results, the RDO will declare the result of the Wadakkanchery Assembly by-election, as he is the returning officer there.

The counting will be held separately at different centres in each Assembly segment. The postal ballots will be counted at the collectorate. About 1,000 officials have been assigned for the counting duties. The release said none without the pass issued by the Election Commission would be permitted to enter the counting stations. The use of cell phones has also been banned in the stations.

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