Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 18 (SocialNews.XYZ) Kerala's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Tika Ram Meena on Friday said all arrangements were in place for the smooth conduct of the by-elections to the five Assembly constituencies scheduled to be held on October 21.
The constituencies that go to the polls are Vatiyoorkavu, Aroor, Konni, Ernakulam and Manjeswaram. Polling would be held from 7 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Thirty five candidates are in the fray for the bypolls and the total electorate is 9,57,509 which includes 4,91,455 women, 4,66,047 men and seven transgenders, Meena said, adding that the voters will exercise their franchise at 846 polling stations, of which 140 would be fully covered by webcasting.
"Cooperative bank's pass book identity card will not be allowed to be used as voter identity. All poll surveys will be banned for 48 hours till the poll time is over. In addition to the police, 10 companies of Central forces will be providing security," the CEO said.
He said the Kerala High Court will be monitoring the practice of green protocol for the elections and no plastic material would be used.
He said they have kept adequate standby electronic voting machines and this time they are using the M3 model EVMs.
The CEO has also asked the political parties to tell their polling agents to stay alert so that no bogus voting takes place.
On cases registered against bogus voters during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, Meena said the probe into such cases will take time as the police and the concerned election district officials have to sit together to verify all the records.
Source: IANS
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