Kochi: The stage is set for the Central Kerala districts to proceed to the polling booths on Thursday with the officials making the necessary arrangements and political parties going for last-minute public campaigns which will conclude on Tuesday evening.
A total of 2027 polling booths have been set up in Ernakulam district while 1469 booths are in place in Alappuzha. Thrissur has a total of 2016 polling booths while Kottayam has 1410 booths. These districts are part of more than one Lok Sabha constituency which make the work of the district administration and polling officials difficult. Each booth will have a four member polling official team and the Election Commission has kept a few officials as reserve in each district for the smooth conduct of polls.
The count of electronic voting machines will be equivalent to the polling booths in all districts and have been readied, said a senior official. In Ernakulam, Central forces will not be deployed in the city but in Ernakulam rural, the services of Karnataka Special force has been requisitioned, said District Collector M G Rajamanikyam. The smallest and largest polling booth in the state will be the privilege of Ernakulam in this poll.
The Ramanthuruth polling station in Kochi will have only 20 voters and only three officials are needed for it. Booth no 120 in Kochi Assembly constituency will be the largest booth in the state and is split into A and B, said the Collector.
There are a total of 226 sensitive booths in Kottayam and two hundred personnel drawn from CISF and other paramilitary forces will be deployed in these booths, said the District Collector.
Alappuzha has requisitioned the services of three companies of central forces and two companies of state armed police to take care of 192 sensitive booths. In Thrissur, the Election Commission will deploy central forces in 116 sensitive booths.
Micro observers will be deployed to have an eye on 49 booths. There will also be a facility to videograph proceedings in 49 booths and webcast proceedings in three booths in Thrissur.
