All arrangements have been put in place in the district for a free and fair election to Parliament on Friday, District Collector and District Election Officer N.S.K. Umesh has said..
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Umesh said that the district had an electorate of 26.34 lakh with 13.52 lakh women and 12.82 lakh men. Among the voters, 31 were transpeople. The district has Assembly constituencies, which are part of Ernakulam, Chalakkudy, Idukki and Kottayam Parlilament constituencies.
“Most importantly, the number of first-time voters has doubled from 19,000 in October 2023 to 38,000 thanks to the massive campaign under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation centered around 30-odd campuses,” he said.
cVigil, an app for reporting model code of conduct violations, has witnessed reporting of 23,692 cases. Kerala was the most happening place in terms of cVigil and the high number of cases reported was more about the informed citizenry rather high instances of violations, Mr. Umesh said.
Twenty-eight polling booths in the district have been designated as pink booths, two each in 14 Assembly constitutencies, which will be officiated by women polling officials alone while 56 polling booths, four in each Assembly constituency, have been designated as model booths and will be decked up with decorations. Creches would be set up at 84 polling booths.
All minimum facilities, including drinking water, ramps for the differently abled, signage, and helpdesks will be set up at all polling booths. Training for all 11,028 polling officials has been completed. The district will have 231 sectoral officers and three micro-observers for monitoring polling booths.
So far, 13,800 people have voted under Home Voting system meant for people aged 85 years and above and with benchmark disabilities for which 153 teams were deployed in the district. Those left out would be covered by Wednesday evening. In addition, 117 service votes have been polled. Polling officials who have not yet polled their votes yet will have the opportunity at the voter facilitation centres to be set up at the distribution centres.
Prohibitory orders under CrPC will be in place from Wednesday evening till the day after polling. However, it will not affect normal activities of people but is especially meant for ensuring that no campaign or rallies are held within the 200 metre limits of the polling booths.
Distribution of polling materials will start at the designated centres in each Assembly constituency on Thursday at 8 a.m.