Following the fixation of the 12th Manipur Assembly election in the first quarter of 2022, the election commission has started preparatory steps for the smooth conduction of the election. The full schedule for the election will be announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in due course, said chief electoral officer (CEO) of Manipur Rajesh Agarwal.
He was speaking to the media persons during the first press briefing conducted in context of the ensuing state assembly election held on Thursday at the office of CEO, Manipur in Imphal.
Rajesh informed that as per the Special Summary Revision, 2022 announced by the ECI, the date for publication of integrated draft electoral roll is November 11 and the date for final publication of the electoral roll is January 5, 2022.
He said that the period for filing claims and objections will be held during the whole month of November, the special campaign dates will be held on November 13, 14, 27 and 28, and the disposal of claims and objections will be completed by December 20.
Rajesh continued, since January 15, the commission had received 80,365 applications for claims and objections. From the total applications received, 90 percent of them had been disposed of so far.
ALSO READ: ECI announces summary revision of electoral rolls, says Manipur chief electoral officer
The pre-revision activities such as removal of all logical errors, multiple entries, head to head verification, proper formation of sections and rationalisation of polling stations have already been started from August 9 and it will continue till October last, the CEO continued.
As a part of continuous updation of the electoral roll, he said that any eligible citizen who attains the age of 18 years as on January 1, 2021 can also enroll in the electoral roll before the summary revision through the websites, www.nvsp.in and www.voterportal.in or Voter Helpline Mobile App or by submission of application forms to the concerned Booth Level Officer (BLO) or Electoral Registration Officer (ERO).
He also said that to reduce the number of electors to below 1,200 in per polling station and to make the voters walk not more than two kilometers for voting, a consolidated proposal for additional 64 polling stations has been sent to the ECI for approval.
Moreover, maximum efforts have been put into to shift the old and dilapidated polling stations to good condition polling stations by making field visits by the DEOs and EROs and in consultation with the political parties, he added.
Asserting that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been distributed to all the districts, he said that the First Level Checking (FLC) of EVMs will be started from October 4.
For the first time in the country, a Pre-FLC will also be conducted with the help of FLCU machine in addition to the usual manual FLC and the entire process of FLC will be webcasted for monitoring by CEO and ECI, added Rajesh.
The CEO further informed that a meeting has also been held with around 10 political parties in Manipur and sought their support in enrolling all eligible citizens and to take adequate steps for free and fair election.
Under the SVEEP programme, which was launched from September 3, a total of 12 state icons from diverse fields have been identified and have started engaging them for various activities to create more awareness.
Informing that 87 transgenders have been enrolled in the voter list, he said that the commission will be providing separate queues and toilet facilities in their respective polling stations.
To enroll more number of transgenders, the commission had tied up with the CVOs, community based organisations and transgender icons to encourage them in getting enroll in the voter list, said Rajesh.
Further stating that around 7,500 differently-abled persons were enrolled in the voter list, he said that for those voters, the commission will be providing postal ballot facilities.
In order to get such an opportunity, the CEO appealed to all the differently-abled persons to mark themselves as 'physically challenged' during registration of the new electoral roll.
