Imphal: All is set for the 1st of elections to the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly which will take place on Monday, February 28, 2022.
CEO, Manipur in a press note in connection with the ensuing election said that since ECI has discontinued Photo Voter Slip as an identity proof with effect from February 28, 2019, Voters shall require to produce one of the 12 identity documents approved by the Commission, which include EPIC card, Aadhaar Card, MNREGA Job Card, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, Driving License, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, Indian Passport, Pension document with photograph, Service Identity Cards with photograph issued to employees by Central/State Govt./PSUs/Public Limited Companies and Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs.
A total of 38 Assembly Constituencies which include 10 in Imphal East, 13 in Imphal West, six each in Bishnupur and Churachandpur and three in Kangpokpi will go for polls in the 1st of election for the 12 Manipur Legislative Assembly on Monday, February 28, 2022. There is a total of 12,09,439 voters including 580607 male, 628657 female and 175 transgender voters across 1721 polling stations.in this phase. There is a total of 10041 PwD electors and 251 Centenarian voters in these 38 Assembly Constituencies.
381 polling stations will be completely manned by all-women polling personnel and four Assembly Constituencies namely 13-Singjamei, 14-Yaiskul, 15-Wangkhei and 58- Churachandpur will be manned by all women polling teams while one polling station in 59-Saikot will be manned completely by PwD polling personnel. A total of 6884 polling personnel are being deployed and all polling personnel will reach their respective polling stations on 27.02.2022.
A total of 173 candidates including 15 females are in the fray out of which, 39 candidates have criminal antecedents. The party wise number of candidates: BJP-38, CPI-1, INC-35, NCP-6, NPP-27, JD(U)-28, LJP (Ram Vilas)-3, RPI(Athawale)-6, Shiv Sena-7, Kuki National Assembly-2, Kuki People’s Alliance-2 and Independent-18.
To ensure COVID safe election, adequate arrangements have been made in all polling stations. All polling stations have been sanitized. ASHA and Anganwadi workers have been engaged. Marking of circles with minimum distance has been done to avoid crowding. Besides, masks, gloves, face shields, thermal scanners, PPE kit, etc. have been provided to polling parties. Voters who are COVID positive or are under quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour between 3 PM to 4 PM.
Provision for Pick up/Drop facilities for PwD and aged electors are made available with wheelchair facility. Besides, two volunteers have been engaged in each polling station for assisting voters. Voter Assistance Booth have also been set up in all polling stations.
Postal Ballots for service electors have been issued to all 13274 electors electronically and 559 have been received to date. These will be received till 10.03.2022 before 8 am. A total of 13067 voters on election duty have applied for the postal ballot, while 2419 PBs received at the facilitation centre, the rest have been sent to the voters by post at their addresses. Further, 906 postal ballots have been cast by Pwd voters and 4968 votes have been cast by 80+ voters in the absentee voter category. For Essential services, 15 PBs issued and all PBs received.
The movement of EVMs is being tracked with the help of e-Traccar App which is embedded in the mobile phones of Polling personnel and Sector Officers. Besides, polling personnel will be able to report any sort of EVM malfunctioning or any untoward incident happening in the polling station. This will enable the Returning Officer to take immediate corrective actions. Booth App shall also be used to report two-hourly reports of voter turnout by the polling team.
Control Rooms have been set up in all offices of Returning Officers, District Election Officers and Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur. Among one of the initiatives, a voter will also be able to know the queue waiting time in the polling station with the help of the voter facilitator app which is available for download in the google play store, the press note added.
