Altogether 14 out of the 55 candidates in the fray in the 13 Assembly Constituencies of Imphal West district have criminal antecedents.
TFM Desk
Imphal West district election officer Th Kirankumar on Saturday stressed on the importance of postal ballots and maintained that it will play a vital role in assembly constituencies where there is close contest between candidates
Kirankumar briefed media persons at his office chamber regarding the district’s preparedness for the ensuing 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly, 2022 Elections.
DEO Kirankumar, while explaining the different types of postal ballots in length, said the first type of postal ballots is for the Absentee Voters. There are 2,834 Absentee Voters for Senior Citizens or 80+ electors and 444 Absentee Voters for PwDs in the district, he added.
Regarding voting facilities for the Absentee Voters, the DEO said altogether 55 polling teams will visit their homes in two rounds. The road chart of each polling team has already been sent to all the candidates of the 13 ACs in the district.
The first round of visit will start from 8 am of February 21 and continue till February 22. For those who missed the first round, a second trip will be made on February 25, he said, adding that the details have also been uploaded on the district’s official website. He continued that voters who have opted for this facility will be informed about the schedule timing of the visits personally or to their family members through SMS on their registered mobile numbers as well as through home visits by the BLOs.
The second type of Postal ballot is for the Service Voters. There are 3190 Postal Ballots for Service Voters in the district. He explained that the postal ballots and the required documents have already been sent to the voters electronically on February 12. Ballot papers received till 7:59 am of March 10 only will be accepted.
The third type of postal ballot is for those on election duty. Officials on election duty who want to avail postal ballots can submit their forms till February 21 to the concerned ROs, he said adding that two time slots for voting will be provided to those found eligible. The first slot will be on February 24 at the training centres and the second will be at the time of dispersal of polling personnel, he added.
Stating that tracking of vehicular movement of the polling teams is crucial, the DEO said certain applications have been initiated to monitor their movement. He further said movement of vehicles carrying EVMs will be monitored through the e-tracker application fitted in the vehicles.
Another application – Booth App will be utilized to monitor real-time voter turnout information by the officials. Crowd management outside the polling stations will be done using the e-Atlas app.
Highlighting the initiatives taken up for the PwD voters, the DEO said that through ‘PwD app’-mobile application, PwD voters can ask for vehicles and wheelchairs assistance. Kirankumar also said that all the 530 polling stations in the district will be webcasted and monitored from the DEO office.
Altogether 14 out of the 55 candidates in the fray in the 13 Assembly Constituencies of Imphal West district have criminal antecedents, he said adding that there is a total of 3,80,480 electors in the district. The DEO said a total of 18,326 EPIC cards for new voters have been distributed in the district through the BLOs.
Further elaborating on the initiatives taken up for the smooth conduct of the election in the district, the DEO said details including lists of candidates, important phone numbers of concerned officials including ROs, AC wise Observers, where the public can highlight their complaints and grievances have also been displayed at polling stations and localities.
The DEO further sought cooperation of the public to ensure free, fair and peaceful voting in the district so that there is no need to conduct re-polls. He also appealed to the media persons to ensure that any news report related to the district is cross checked with the officials concerned so that the true report is put before the public.