Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Kerala poll arrangements in place, says Nalini Netto

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All arrangements for the smooth conduct of the Lok Sabha elections, which will take place in Kerala on Thursday, have been put in place, said Chief Electoral Officer Nalini Netto here on Monday.

Addressing a press conference, she said the Election Commission had identified around 2,000 sensitive or vulnerable polling stations requiring extra attention. Of these, more than 340 were in Kannur district. The number would change by the time of polling since the situation was being monitored constantly.

More than 25,000 officials from the State police would be on poll duty. In addition to them, two companies each of the Rapid Action Force and the Central Industrial Security Force and 20 companies of police from the neighbouring States would be in Kerala.

Several ‘micro-observers’ would be deployed to ensure fair polling at stations requiring additional attention. Ms. Netto said the duty of the ‘micro observers’ was to assist the Election Observers from the Centre.

An information gathering network with phone numbers for each polling station too had been put in place. Videographers would record the developments at sensitive stations.

Over 2.18 crore voters are on the rolls in 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State. The composition of the constituencies has changed because of delimitation.

Nearly one lakh officials will be deployed for poll duty at 20,476 polling booths in the State. As many as 217 candidates, including 14 women, are contesting from the 20 constituencies. Kottayam, with 20 candidates, has the largest number of contestants. Malappuram, with four candidates, has the least.

Ms. Netto said the electronic voting machines would be ‘randomised’ twice before being taken to the booths.

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