Kannur has most of Kerala’s sensitive polling booths

By IANS,

Thiruvananthapuram : With all arrangements in place for Wednesday’s assembly election in Kerala, a senior official said Monday that 3,703 polling booths have been identified as sensitive, with Kannur district topping the list with 1,257.


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“Kozhikode comes next with 672 sensitive booths while Kottayam (33) has the least. These numbers are likely to change as the respective officers will update the report from time to time,” Chief Electoral Officer Nalini Netto told reporters Monday.

Kerala has a total of 20,758 polling booths and 27 auxiliary booths.

According to Netto, the total number of voters in the state as on the last date of the filing of nominations (March 26) stood at 231,47,871, which includes 120,55,313 men and 110,92,558 men.

There are also 61,641 postal voters.

Another highlight of the elections this time is that 8,862 non-resident Keralites have registered to cast their votes – of them 8,531 males and 331 females.

Kozhikode district has the highest number of non-resident voters (2,580) while Idukki has only 25.

Among the 971 candidates contesting 140 assembly seats, there are 893 men and 78 women.

“There is one non-resident candidate, Joemon John based in Ireland, who is contesting as an independent from Thodupuzha in Idukki district,” said Netto.

There are 61,641 postal voters and a record 1.25 lakh officials who have been asked to report for election duty.

“As many as 44 companies of police from the state and 40 from outside the state have been drafted for poll duty. Roughly, there would be under 80,000 policemen will be on duty, including some kept as reserves,” added Netto.

According to her, the booths identified as sensitive will have one micro observer, one central observer, a video camera and live web casting.

The polling process in 93 booths will be webcast, allowing election officials, including those in Delhi, to follow the progress.

Poonjar in Kottayam district has the maximum number of candidates at 13.

Kerala has a 100 percent record in photo electoral identity cards, the official said.

The public election campaign ended in the state at 5 p.m. Monday.

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