AP ready for polls with 46,165 polling stations, home voting for elderly, disabled

Amaravati: Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena has announced that the state has a total of 46,165 polling stations. The CEO spoke to the media at the Secretariat in Velagapudi on Saturday after the chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar announced the schedule of the State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The state will go for polling on May 13 and the counting is on June 4.

179 polling stations to be run by women

According to Mukesh Kumar, each polling station could accommodate 877 voters on average.

The State Electoral Commission (SEC) is setting up 179 polling places in the state that are run by women for the first time, followed by 50 polling places run by young people and 550 model polling stations.

Each polling station would be equipped with minimum facilities like drinking water, lighting and ramps. Only 40 polling stations are yet to be equipped and will be completed by March end, he said and special arrangements would be made after identifying the critical and vulnerable polling stations in the state.

Voters can use 12 types of identification cards

The CEO said that the total number of voters in Andhra Pradesh as of March 16 is 4.09 crore, an increase from 4.07 crore recorded on January 22. The total voters include two crore men, 2.08 crore women and 3,346 of the third-gender. Voter information slips, including those for the visually handicapped, would be delivered five days before the polling date, he added.

The SEC has started distributing voter cards (EPIC cards), and the process will be finished by the end of March, he said. Apart from that, 12 types of identification cards such as Aadhaar, MGNREGA, passbooks, health insurance smart cards, driving licences, PAN cards, passports, pension documents and service identity cards can be used by the voter for identification on the date of polling, he added.

Senior citizens and differently-abled can vote from home

Mukesh Kumar said that, for the first time in Andhra Pradesh, there would be a facility available for all senior citizens aged 80 and above to vote from the comfort of their homes.

Voting from home is not compulsory but an optional facility for the elderly and differently-abled people. After notification, they can apply through Form 12 and the returning officer (RO) will verify it. The officials will mark it as a postal ballot and then 10 days before the polling date special teams will reach the house along with a polling officer, videographer and a micro observer and prior information to the polling parties, he informed.

Online nomination facility for the candidates

The CEO further said that the candidates can also file their nominations online apart from a physical entry of their data.

After registering on the ECI website for the online nomination facility, the candidate should fill out the information take a printout of the physical copy and submit it to the returning officer. A security deposit of Rs 25,000 should be made by the candidate online, he said. When it comes to filing the affidavit for the candidates, the format remains the same and they file through Form 26, he added.

Handling criminal records of candidates

This time, candidates having criminal cases should publish their credentials three times before the polling in newspapers and television. Similarly, the political party should also publish these details, according to Mukesh Kumar.

Elaborating further, he said that around four lakh employees would be used for the smooth conduct of the elections in the state. Informing the details of polling machinery, the state had 1.43 lakh ballot units, 1.15 lakh control units and 1.37 lakh VVPAT machines.

Agencies made seizures worth Rs 164 crores in AP since January

“To control money power, we are making elaborate arrangements to deploy 22 Central and State government departments including narcotics, income tax, GST, excise, transport, and SEB to curtail the flow of illegal money, liquor, drugs and others. The Election Commission of India visited the state on January 9. In the last two months, the agencies made seizures worth Rs 164 crores during the non-election period which includes Rs 69 crores in cash, liquor worth Rs 18 crores, drugs and narcotics worth Rs 30 crores and precious metals such as gold and silver worth Rs 41 crores. The seizures are even more than those done in the previous 2019 elections,” Mukesh Meena said and banks were also directed to inform the suspicious transactions to the district collector.

Mukesh Kumar Meena also said that 100 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been allotted to Andhra Pradesh to supplement the local police force for ensuring election security.