Kangpokpi, district election officer Mahesh Chaudhari on Saturday gave a press briefing on the ongoing commissioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) in the district, as per the guidelines set by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Addressing the media, he said the entire process is being carried out under 24x7 CCTV coverage to maintain complete transparency and in the presence of the representatives of the political parties.
Informing that high security measures have been put in place for the commissioning and at the strong rooms, he said the representatives of political parties are also involved in the mock poll process, which is an integral part of the commissioning process.
He informed that commissioning of EVMs and VVPATs are being done under supervision of senior election officers of the district and the engineers from ECI are guiding the whole process.
He said three-four days ahead of the actual poll day (April 19), the ‘vote-from-home’ facilities will commence which will be done in presence of polling officials consisting of videographer, photographer and security personnel. It may be mentioned that this time, the home voting facility has been extended to senior citizens above 85 years of age and voters with over 40 per cent disability to make the elections more inclusive.
He said that the election observers have thoroughly inspected the overall preparedness in the district. The observers interacted with district political parties and staff of the DEO office, visited a school that will serve as a polling station and a relief camp, he added. The district election officer also informed that the polling procedure for postal ballot is in the final stages and teams have been formed for training from next week.
Emphasising on the Systematic Voter’s Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) activities conducted under CEO (SH-ADC), he said the voter education and awareness programmes are being undertaken at various locations such as Nute Kailhang (Ima Market), schools, colleges and at the IDP households. The main objective of these activities is to promote a systematic approach towards voter education and encourage electoral participation among citizens, he said.
Deputy district election officer, nodal officer for training management said that the third round of training is scheduled next week, the training for Micro Observers is scheduled from Monday.
He said those polling personnel having doubts even after the training can join training on April 15. For the vote-for-home scheme, postal ballot polling personnel will visit the homes of senior citizens and persons with disabilities on April 9, if required they will also visit on April 12, 2024. After proper training of the polling personnel vote-from-home will be conducted, he added.
The District level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) team has also urged the political parties and candidates to refrain from putting advertisements which are inflammatory, misleading or which creates hatred.
The team informed that no political party or candidate or any other organisation or person shall publish any advertisement in print media on poll day or one day prior to poll day unless the contents of the advertisement have been pre-certified by them from MCMC at the State/District level.
It is mandatory for any political party or candidate to take pre-certification. They have to apply to MCMC no later than 2 days prior to the proposed date of publication of the advertisement.
Regarding the exemption of polling persons from poll duties, Chairman, District Level Medical Board informed that he board conducted a session on April 2, this month and the list of exempted polling persons from poll duties are available on the district website.
Additional DEO, Nodal Officer for Transport Management said that preparation of dispersal of polling parties will be done on two dates from common place. Other required arrangements are being taken up for the polling parties so that best of the facilities can be provided to them. Regarding the transport, he said the district election team is thankful to the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer for their assistance and expressed hope that the team will be able to perform the duties for a smooth conduct of the poll.
