THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With poll officials taking control of 2,203 booths in Thiruvananthapuram, the district will officially be ready for polls on Sunday. Mock polls will be held by 6 a.m. on Monday to ensure that the three-layer quality control is in place before the actual election. All the 9,692 poll officials will be randomised three times before being allotted duty. Posting orders for the booths will be given through SMS by 10 a.m. on Sunday.
“The election counters will open at 7 a.m. on Sunday and around 8 a.m. the sectoral officers will assemble. Once posting orders are received, buses will ply them to the respective booths. Catalogues regarding their buses will be given. All the officials, including observers and micro observers, have already been trained. Kudumbashree food stalls will be available at polling stations until the end of elections and jail chappathis will also be available,” district collector Biju
Prabhakar said.
Around 34 booths will be managed and run entirely by women in four constituencies- Nemom, Kazhakoottam, Thiruvananthapuram and Vattiyoorkavu. Around 70 polling booths will have all basic amenities, including arrangement to sit in queue. Thiruvananthapuram district has dedicated wireless network established during National Games that will help in poll coordination.
Ban on outsiders, bulk SMS
Soon after the conclusion of public campaigning on Saturday, bulk SMS in favour of any candidates have been banned. “No party worker or leaders from other districts should be seen in Thiruvananthapuram. If they don’t leave we will use force to remove them,” Mr Prabhakar said. Liquor outlets that were closed on Saturday evening will be shut until the polls are over.
Many new initiatives
For the first time, new VVPAT (Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trial) voting machines will show printouts to voters confirming the name and symbol of candidate to whom they have voted. The printed slip cannot be taken and will fall inside a ballot box after being visible to the voter for seven seconds.
From this year, Braille election slips have been manually given to over 600 visually impaired voters. Earlier, they had to get a helper to vote or check the names of candidates inscribed in voting machines in Braille.
Election apps, software
The voters can download the Android application ‘e-voter Kerala’ to search many details, including electoral rolls, constituency list among others. Results will also be available in the application that can be downloaded from Google playstore.
