A net of 13,203 voters have been added to the Electoral Rolls during the continuous updation and the total electors on the Final Electoral Roll for ensuing elections now stands at 20,48,169.
TFM Report
Manipur Chief Electoral Officer, Rajesh Agrawal on Thursday informed that a total of 56 candidates out of 265 candidates in the fray for the upcoming election are having criminal antecedents.
Briefing media persons at the office of the CEO, Manipur at Lamphel, Imphal, Rajesh Agrawal further said that the candidates having criminal antecedents should published the details of the criminal antecedents in Format C1 and political parties selecting such candidates in Format C2 on three occasions in the one of the newspapers and one of the TV channels approved by the CEO.
“First publication should be within the first 4 days of withdrawal of nominations. Second publications should be between 5th – 8th days of withdrawal of nominations and third publication from 9th day till the last day of campaign (48 hours before the close of poll),” he added.
Rajesh Agrawal further said that a total of 600 All Women Polling stations to be established in the State of Manipur, i.e., one out of every 5 Polling Station will be manned by Women Polling Personnel, for the first time that the 20% mark is breached across the states of India.
“A net of 13,203 voters have been added to the Electoral Rolls during the continuous updation and the total electors on the Final Electoral Roll for ensuing elections now stands at 20,48,169”, he said.
A total of 173 candidates are contesting Phase -1 Elections, out of which 15 are Female and a total of 92 candidates are contesting in Phase -2, out of which 2 are Female. There were two withdrawals and one rejection in Phase-I, and two withdrawals and two rejections in Phase-2. The nomination paper in respect of Lunkhopao Haokip, NPP candidate from 42-Chandel AC has been rejected by the Returning Officer as he is found to be disqualified under Section 9A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the CEO informed.
The CEO also said that the political manifesto should not be released during the prohibition period in both phases as prescribed under Section 126 of the RPA, 1951 (Last 48 hours before the close of poll).
Law & Order and Confidence Building Measures:
The CEO also informed that total seizure has crossed 100 crore and now stands at 102 crores, which also includes 84.7 crores of Drugs/poppy and 1.475 crore of Cash (by Income Tax). A total of 286 nakas are operational. 80.53% of arms (18039) are deposited as against 59.76% in 2017 Assembly Elections. 6456 persons Bound down. IMFL/DIC liquor seizures are on the rise. SST, Police Department, Excise Department and State Tax Department are on high alert. A total of 328 FIRs were registered from 1st of August 2022 including 60 cases of NDPS. From the Date of announcement (ie., 08/01/2022), a total of 45 FIRs were registered across the state, he added.
Rajesh Agrawal also maintained that an adequate number of Central Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) will be deployed in 12th General Elections to the Legislative Assembly. CAPF are already deployed and are being effectively used in area domination and in vulnerable pockets/hamlets, as a step towards confidence building amongst the electorate, he said. But he didn’t disclose the number of CAPF personnel to be deployed during the election.
E-Traccar and E-atlas App:
The CEO further said that the traccar application will be used to systematically track the movement of each identified election official on the day of election. A companion traccar app will be installed on each official with required permissions and must be put ON all the time to be able to track their locations. E-atlas will be used for mapping information of status of safe arrival of Polling Officers, voter at queue reporting service, live incident reporting service (which will be flagged instantaneously to the Control Room, Live EVM/VVPAT malfunction reporting service, Live Poll Closemonitoring service. The Sector teams will be tracked through these APPs and communication in case of any emergency/ functional issues of EVMs will be flagged and reported through these APPS to the Sector Teams. These APPs are an innovation of Manipur and are in place only in our state, he added.
Postal Ballots
ETPBS for service voters have been dispatched electronically by all ROs. Service voters will mark and send the postal ballots to ROs by post. Only those Postal Ballots received before 8AM of 10-03-2022 will be taken up for counting.
A total of 13,274 Service voters for Phase-1 and 8,670 voters in phase-2 can now send Postal ballots.
A total of 8711 Absentee voters will be exercising their franchise through Postal ballot, which includes 1261 Person with Disabilities, 7,434 Senior citizens and 16 persons belonging to the Essential Services
Polling Teams have started visiting the houses of absentee voters from 16-02-2022 onwards and facilitated voting through postal ballots. Micro Observers being deployed & Videography to be done. Each absentee voter is informed in advance. All candidates/ agents are also informed in advance.
COVID Management:
The Election Commission of India has taken note of the fact, that the COVID cases in the state are fast receding and has decided to revise the guidelines as follows: For Outdoor physical meeting, 50% of the capacity of designated open ground or as fixed by DEOs as per requirement of social distancing norms, whichever is less, subject to compliance of all conditions of SDMA. Pad-yatras are allowed with a maximum of 100 persons and with written permission of the DEO. All requisite permission shall be obtained from SUVIDHA portal.
So far 69.44% and 54.41% of the electors are vaccinated with single dose and second dose respectively. Around 21817 polling personnel trained are completely vaccinated. A total of 5500 precautionary Doses were administered to Polling Parties. Around 10,000 Police personnel are vaccinated with Precautionary doses. 99% and 86% of police personnel are given 1st Dose and 2nd Doses respectively. All the election machinery who have completed 90 days from the date of second dose are being administered precautionary doses.
The CEO assured that meticulous planning is in place to ensure Network connectivity, disruption- free Power during the Poll days. Security Management Plan and Communication Planare being finalized for ensuing General elections to the 12th Legislative Assembly. Shadow area Action Plan is in place for 62 polling stations across the State. Satellite phones, VHFs and booster/repeater stations will be established to fill the communication gaps, he added.