Manipur witnessed record voter turnout in inclusive, accessible, participative elections
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 01 2022: The grand festival of democracy was celebrated across 38 Assembly Constituencies for the first phase of Manipur Assembly elections and ended peacefully yesterday with a record voter turnout of 88.63% of the total 12,09,439 voters in the State as per report available from Constituencies upto 5 pm on February 28.The CEO office on February 28 had given the voting percentage till 5 pm of yesterday as 78.03 percent.

In a statement, the Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur, Rajesh Agrawal said that the male voter turnout was 87.29% and that of female was 89.96% .

Old aged/ young ones/ PwDs, women, transgenders/ 1st time voters, middle aged and electors of all age groups casted their votes.

IT applications used for booking of wheelchairs and checking queue waiting time periods at polling stations proved to be a true boon for PwD electors as around 176 wheelchairs were booked through it and were made available.

Special efforts were made to ensure hassle free voting to elderly voters, resulting in over 97% of the 100+ electors visiting the polling stations to exercise their adult franchise.

79 and 381 polling stations were earmarked as Model and Women Polling Stations respectively in Phase-I .

First time voters, elderly voters, transgenders and early voters etc.

were given special merchandise gift items by the polling teams.

Over 90% of the transgender voters enrolled as electors exercised their adult franchise.

In Imphal East district, each of them were given a certificate signed by the DEO.

A total of 247 out of 253 SoO cadres voted from the 13 designated camps spread in Churachandpur, Pherzawl, Bishnupur and Kangpokpi.

All polling teams returned safely to the reception centres and the EVM/VVPAT were sealed in strong rooms in presence of the Observers and the polling agents and placed under the three-tier security cover.

Presiding Officers and EVM machines of seventeen polling stations of 55-Tipaimukh Constituency were airlifted from Jiribam, which will only be opened only on the date of counting in presence of the election agents.

Scrutiny of Form-17A and other election related documents have been carried out for all Phase-I ACs by the ROs and the Observers in presence of the candidates/election agents.

Nothing untoward was observed in a majority of the ACs.

Minor incidents have been reported in a few polling stations which were examined and found to have no detrimental impact on the poll process.

The statement added that the votes polled have been safely stored and secured in the machines.

However, stray incidents of damaged EVMs were reported and re-poll has been recommended for those polling stations.

Adequate arrangements for Covid safe election were taken up which included scanning of each voter, provisions for hand gloves, adequate sanitizers, queuing system under Covid protocol, etc.

Voting by Covid suspects/positive persons took place in the last hour of poll under strict Covid protocol by wearing PPE.

The bio-medical waste generated therein was systematically disposed of as per the guidelines.

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