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Final phase of polling today

Special Correspondent

Additional police deployment in trouble-prone areas

PATIENT WAIT: Government employees on poll duty waiting for ballot papers at Malabar Christian College in Kozhikode on Sunday. Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The second and final phase of the polling to the civic bodies in the State - covering 93.31 lakh voters in the districts of Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod - is being held on Monday.

The police have identified 1,676 polling booths coming under this phase as `trouble-prone.' Kannur district has 1,150 such booths, Kozhikode 380, Kasaragod 169, Palakkad 129, Malappuram 98 and Wayanad 50.

Extra vigil

State Election Commissioner N. Mohandas said the `trouble-prone' polling booths would have additional police protection. Police patrol teams too would be keeping extra vigil to ensure the smooth conduct of polling in such booths. There will be a patrol team for every 10 booths so that it could keep visiting each booth every 10 or 15 minutes. As many as 8,614 wards are involved in this phase of the polling and 24,078 candidates are contesting from these wards. Polling is not being held in 95 wards spread over the six districts since candidates there have been elected unopposed. Fifty-nine candidates have been elected unopposed in Kannur district, 22 in Kasaragod district, seven in Palakkad district, four in Kozhikode district, two in Malappuram district and one in Wayanad district.

Warning to troublemakers

Mr. Mohandas said that everything was in place for the smooth conduct of the polling. More than 92,000 polling officials, armed with the materials required for conducting the elections, reached the polling stations by Sunday afternoon. Over 25,000 police officials are on poll duty. The police officials are under strict instruction to arrest those who indulge in bogus voting.

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