State gears up for polling amid tight security
State’s 2.77 crore eligible voters to elect 20 Lok Sabha MPs from among 194 candidates. Polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in 25,231 polling booths across 13,272 locations. Election o†cials are hoping that the turnout would touch 80% this time aga
Election o icials walking past a mural of Dakshayani Velayudhan, the youngest and only Dalit member of the Constituent Assembly which drafted the Constitution for Independent India, at Maharaja's College in Kochi on Thursday.
After weeks of highvoltage election campaigns and political sabre-rattling, the State will go to the polling booths on Friday in the second phase of the 18th Lok Sabha elections.
Polling is scheduled to open at 7 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. in 25,231 polling booths across 13,272 locations. One hour before the actual polling starts, a mock poll will be held at the booths in the presence of representatives of political parties.
All arrangements are in place for the smooth conduct of the polls, Chief Electoral Ocer (Kerala) Sanjay Kaul said on Thursday. For the 2024 edition of the Lok Sabha polls, Kerala has 2,77,49,159 eligible voters. They include 1,43,33,499 women, 1,34,15,293 men, and 367 transgender voters. As many as 5,34,394 voters are rst-time voters in the 18-19 age group. In all, 194 candidates are in the fray in the State’s 20 Lok Sabha constituencies this time.
Election ocials are hoping that the turnout would touch 80% this time. It stood at 77.67% in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 74.06% in the 2021 Assembly elections.
30,238 EVMs
The Election Commission has allotted 30,238 electronic voting machines (EVM) for Friday’s election. Damaged machines will be replaced promptly through the sector ocers concerned. The EVMs were distributed among the booths after three stages of randomisation and a mock poll.
Friday’s polling will be managed by 1,01,176 ocials. Every booth will have four ocials including the Presiding Ocer.
Tight security measures are in place to ensure an incident-free polling on Friday. The deployment of 66,303 security personnel drawn from the State Police, Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and additional personnel from the Tamil Nadu police and Home Guards has been completed.
Webcasting has been arranged in all booths in eight districts (Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram) and 75% of the booths in the remaining six districts for realtime surveillance.
Control rooms
The footage will be constantly monitored through the constituency-level control rooms and the control room at the CEO’s oce in Thiruvananthapuram. After polling ends at 6 p.m., ballot units and VVPAT machines will be held under guard in strong rooms till June 4, when the votes are to be counted.