Arrangements are in place for conducting first phase of ZPTC and MPTC elections in the district on Sunday, District Election Officer and Collector S. Solomon Arokia Raj told a press conference here on Friday.
Elections would be held for 22 ZPTCs and 379 MPTCs under them in Visakhapatnam, Anakapalle and Narsipatnam Revenue Divisions. There are 9,65,504 voters in the 22 ZPTCs and will cast their vote at the 1,177 polling stations.
Mr. Arokia Raj, who addressed the press conference along with Joint Collector Pravin Kumar and CEO of Zilla Parishad Maheswara Reddy, appealed to political parties and people to ensure a smooth and peaceful polling on Sunday.
Since elections were held for two municipalities in the district and ZPTC and MPTC elections were going to be held in two phases, the Collector made it clear that no voter should vote both in the municipal and rural local bodies since one could vote in only one of the two elections. If a person who voted in the municipal elections also voted in the ZPTC and MPTC elections, he or she would be prosecuted according to the Representation of People Act, he said. He issued this warning following some phone calls received about plans of some people to vote in the rural bodies elections after casting their votes in the municipal elections.
Elections to ZPTCs and MPTCs will be held in Anandapuram, Bheemunipatnam, Padmanabham, Parawada, Pendurthi, Sabbavaram, Anakapalle, Butchaiapeta, Chodavaram, Cheedikada, Kasimkota, K. Kotapadu, Munagapaka, Atchyutapuram, Elamanchili, Rambilli, Narsipatnam, Makavarapalem, Kotauratla, Nakkapalli, S. Rayavaram and Payakaraopeta. (Elections to 17 ZPTCs, including 11 in Visakha Agency will be held during the second phase on April 11).
Nearly 4,500 police personnel under the supervision of Superintendent of Police and Commissioner of Police (in the case of five ZPTC areas coming under City Police limits) were being deployed for the elections. There are 182 sensitive and 140 hyper sensitive polling stations in the first phase and adequate police force would be deployed for them.
A total of 6,473 polling personnel would conduct the elections and the distribution and reception centre of the polling material is the MPDO office of the ZPTC area. Strong rooms would be at the Srinivasa Institute of Management Studies, Visakhapatnam; AMAL College, Anakapalle, and Don Bosco School, Narsipatnam. Counting of votes is expected to be held later.
