New Delhi, January 16: After the announcement of the general election to the ninth Manipur Legislative Assembly by the Election Commission of India scheduled to be polled in three phases on February 8, 14 and 23 this year, the State Election department finalized the electorates to cast their votes in the election.

The number of voters who would exercise their franchise in the assembly election for Manipur is 17,06,646.Out of this, the number of general electors is 17,01,401 and the number of service voters is 5,245.The total number of female voters is 8,82,763 including 1193 service voters.

The total male voters are 8,23,883 including 4052 service voters.

Among the 60 constituencies, Mao A/C in Senapati District has the largest electorates of 49,337 and Thanlon A/C in Churachandpur district has the smallest electorates of 17,232.The poll of the 60 assembly constituencies will take place in 2053 polling stations.

Out of the 2053 polling stations, 683 stations are classified as hypersensitive, 973 as sensitive and 397 as normal.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India appointed 30 general observers and 10 expenditure observers drawn from Indian Administrative Services and allied Services Officers.

The Chief Election Commissioner of India N.Gopalaswamy addressed to those appointed observers for free and fair election in the briefing meeting held on January 10 last at Nirvanchan Sadan here.

The observers assigned for duty on the first phase poll will stay in Manipur from January 20 to February 8 in the first visit and from February 26 to 27 in the second visit.

The second phase observers will stay in Manipur from January 27 to February 15 in the first visit and from February 26 to 27 in the second visit.

The third phase observers will stay in Manipur from February 3 to 27.For handling the Manipur Election 2007, the Election Commission of India assigned the Deputy Election Commissioner Jai P.Prakash, the Secretary (Planning) A..KMajumdar, Zonal Secretary (Manipur) K.Ajay Kumar and the Under Secretary (Manipur) N.N.Butolia for duty.

The Election Commission of India has been closely watching the poll process in Manipur through getting feedback from all sources including local daily newspapers.

On daily basis, the State DIPR has been dispatching a set of local English dailies to the ECI, Delhi.

Dr.N.K.Bar, Chief Library Information Officer from the ECI who visited to the Manipur Information Centre, Delhi today demanded the set of all local newspapers including vernacular newspapers and also asked this Centre to send the press clippings of sensitive stories to them as desired by the ECI authority.