Virus threat: Chennai’s 16 Assembly seats to have more polling booths as per EC directive

CHENNAI: The 16 Assembly constituencies in the city will get 2,369 auxiliary polling booths for the upcoming Assembly elections to reduce the number of voters per booth owing to COVID-19 restrictions.

Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said the 16 constituencies already have 3,764 polling booths at 901 locations. “The Election Commission of India directed to maintain the number of voters per polling booth at 1,000. Due to this, additional 2,369 auxiliary booths have been formed. The new auxiliary booths are mostly located close to the existing polling booths. As of now, the city has 6,123 polling booths at 1,053 locations,” he added.

During a meeting held with the representatives of the political parties at Ripon Building on Friday, the civic body has promised the party representatives of providing the draft list of polling stations. “The parties are requested to submit their suggestions in two days,” Prakash said.

Earlier, the polling booths were formed with a maximum of 1,200 voters per booth.

Another official said the number of booths has been worked out based on the number of voters in the 16 assembly constituencies in the Chennai district. “As more than 1.25 lakh persons have applied for including their names in the electoral list, the number of voters has increased,” the official said. The civic body had brought 4,320 ballot units and 5,820 control units from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. In total, the civic body is testing 10,214 ballot units and 7,810 control units.

The Election Commission of India has directed to maintain the number of voters per polling booth at not more than 1,000. Due to this, additional 2,369 auxiliary booths have been formed in the city constituencies —G Prakash, Chennai Corporation Commissioner