The Hindu : Front Page : All set for first phase of Assembly elections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 22, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

All set for first phase of Assembly elections

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the first of the three-phased polling for the Assembly elections which will take place in Kerala on Saturday.

The first phase will cover the six southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Idukki.

As many as 409 candidates are in the fray for the 59 seats in these districts. Only 27 of them are women. The Aryanad constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district accounts for the largest number of candidates - 11. The lowest number of candidates is in Neduvathoor in Kollam district - three.

The polling will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There are over 83.89 lakh voters in the six districts. Female voters numbering over 43.70 lakhs outnumber male voters whose number is 40.19 lakhs. The number of voters in various districts are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram - 21.52 lakhs, Kollam - 17.49 lakhs, Pathanamthitta - 8.35 lakhs, Alappuzha - 14.91 lakhs, Kottayam - 13.65 lakhs and Idukki - 7.94 lakhs.

A total number of 8,451 polling stations have been made ready to enable them to cast their votes. As many as 8,292 of them are regular polling stations and the remaining auxiliary polling stations. Thiruvananthapuram district has the largest number of 2,125 polling stations followed by Kollam with 1,721 and Alappuzha with 1,522. The number of polling stations in the other districts are as follows : Kottayam - 1407, Idukki - 900 and Pathanamthitta - 776.

A small army of 47,874 polling personnel has been deployed for the smooth conduct of the election. Thiruvananthpauram accounts for the largest number of them - 17,804. The total number of sectoral officers deployed is 889.

As many as 8,669 electronic voting machines have been put in place in the six districts. Some 1,112 EVMs are being kept ready as reserve in case of malfunctioning. The total number of digital cameras pressed into service for the first phase of polling is 865. Kollam accounts for the largest number of them - 226, followed by Alappuzha with 204. Thiruvananthpuram district has only 199.

There will be 86 general observers and 30 expenditure observers for the first phase.

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