12 ID cards approved for casting votes : CEO
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 27 2022: Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur Rajesh Agrawal has stated that voters will be required to produce one of the 12 identity documents approved by the Election Commission of India since ECI has discontinued Photo Voter Slip as an identity proof with effect from February 28 , 2019 .

The 12 approved identity documents include EPIC card, Aadhaar Card, MNREGA Job Card, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, Driving License, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, Indian Passport, Pension document with photograph, Service Identity Cards with photograph issued to employees by Central/State Govt/PSUs/Public Limited Companies and Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs.

The poll will take place from 7 am to 4 pm on February 28 .

12 ID cards approved for casting votes : CEO

The statement from the CEO further stated that a total of 38 Assembly Constituencies including 10 in Imphal East, 13 in Imphal West, 6 in Bishnupur, 6 in Churachandpur and 3 in Kangpokpi will go for the first phase of polls.

In terms of voters, a total of 12,09,439 voters including 580607 male, 628657 female and 175 transgender voters will exercise their franchise across 1721 polling stations.

The statement elaborated that this also includes a total of 10041 PwD electors and 251 centenarian voters across these 38 ACs.

It is worth mentioning that 381 polling stations will be completely manned by all women polling personnel including 4 ACs namely 13-Singjamei, 14-Yaiskul, 15- Wangkhei and 58- Churachandpur.

It is also notable that 1 polling station in 59-Saikot will be manned completely by PwD polling personnel.

A total of 6884 polling personnel are being deployed and all polling personnel will reach their respective polling stations on February 27 .

According to the statement, a total of 173 candidates including 15 females are in fray for the poll and 39 out of 173 candidates have criminal antecedents.

The party wise number of candidates are : BJP-38, CPI-1, INC-35, NCP-6, NPP-27, JD(U)-28, LJP (Ram Vilas)-3, RPI (Athawale)-6, Shiv Sena-7, Kuki National Assembly-2, Kuki People's Alliance-2 and Independent-18 .

The CEO also informed that to ensure Covid safe election all polling stations have been sanitised and ASHA and Anganwadi workers have been engaged.

Besides, masks, gloves, face shield, thermal scanners, PPE kit etc.

have been provided to polling parties and marking of circles with minimum distance have been done to avoid crowding.

It may be noted that voters who are Covid positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour between 3 pm and 4 pm.

On the accessibility front, provision for pick up/drop facilities for PwD and aged electors are made available with wheelchair facility.

Besides, two volunteers have been engaged in each polling station to assist voters.

Voter Assistance Booths have also been set up in all polling stations, the CEO stated.

Postal Ballots for service electors have been issued to all 13274 electors electronically and 559 have been received till date.

These will be received till March 10 before 8 am.

Further, 906 postal ballots have been cast by PwD voters and 4968 votes have been cast by 80+ voters in the absentee voter category.

For essential services, 15 PBs have been issued and all PBs have been received.It may also be mentioned that the movement of EVMs are being tracked with the help of e-Traccar App which is embedded in the mobile phones of polling personnel and sector officers.

Besides, a polling personnel will be able to report any sort of EVM malfunctioning or any untoward incident happening in the polling station.

This will enable the Returning Officer to take immediate corrective actions.

Further, the Booth App will also be used to report two hourly reports of voter turnout by the polling team.

Control Rooms have been set up in all offices of Returning Officers, District Election Officers and Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur.

A voter will also be able to know the queue waiting time in the polling station with the help of voter facilitator app which is available for download in google play store.

The CEO, Manipur maintained that in order to ensure free, fair and smooth election, certain restrictions have been imposed on poll day in the polling station premises.

Providing free conveyance to voters to and from the polling stations by a candidate/his agent is strictly forbidden, he stated.

Reiterating similar restrictions, he said that as provided in Section 130 of Representation of the People Act, 1951, canvassing within polling stations or any public or private place within a distance of 100 meters of a polling station is prohibited.

Cellular phones, cordless phones etc., will not be allowed except officers on duty within 100 meters of a PS.

Besides, no campaign related posters or banners within 100 meters of the Polling Booth are allowed.

Use of loudspeakers within 100 metre PS is also strictly prohibited.

Candidates should not set up booths within 200 metres of the polling booth.

The CEO lastly appealed to all electors to come out and exercise their franchise fearlessly and out of free will on the poll day.

To this end, he added that adequate security arrangements had been made with deployment of Central paramilitary force at all polling stations.

In addition, there will be effective patrolling and area domination by CAPF and Manipur Police, in all the 38 Constituencies throughout the day, for confidence building and to enable people to come out and vote in a peaceful setting, he said.