About 1.3 million voters will go to polling booths in Malappuram Parliamentary constituency to elect a member to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The by-election has been necessitated by the death of E. Ahamed on February 1. Malappuram has 13.12 lakh voters, comprising 6.56 lakh women and as many men. As many as 1,478 of them are service voters and 1,006 are expatriate voters.
Polling will begin at 7 a.m. on Wednesday and will continue till 6 p.m. District Collector Amit Meena said here all voters reaching the polling stations before 6 p.m. would be allowed to caste their vote. The counting of votes would take place on April 17.
Apart from main contenders such as P.K. Kunhalikutty (UDF), M.B. Faisal (LDF) and N. Sreeprakash (BJP), there are six other independent candidates too. But none of the independents were seen canvassing votes from people.
There would be 1,175 polling stations spread across Assembly segments of Perinthalmanna (177), Malappuram (177), Mankada (172), Manjeri (169), Kondotty (169), Vallikkunnu (163), and Vengara (148). There would be 35 model booths. As many as 21 booths would be presided over by women.
Each polling station would be manned by a presiding officer and three polling officials. There would be an extra polling official in booths having more than 1,200 voters. More than 4,700 polling officials had been deployed for the by-election. They would include 1,175 presiding officers. There would be 111 sector officers to coordinate the working of polling booths. They would have the powers of special executive magistrate.
More than 100 vehicles had been set aside for the by-election. Apart from 1,175 electronic voting machines, 50 per cent spare machines had also been arranged. The Election Commission had also spared 10 engineers to look after the voting machines, the Collector said.
Four companies of Central forces were deployed in the district. There were 49 critical polling stations and 31 politically sensitive booths in the constituency. When armed police would be on duty at critical booths, the polling would be videographed in politically sensitive booths.
Polling materials would be distributed from 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The distribution would take place at Government Vocational HSS, Melangadi, Kondotty; Government UP School, Chullakkad, Manjeri; Government GHSS, Perinthalmanna; GMHSS, Perinthalmanna (for Mankada Assembly segment); Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Manjeri (for Malappuram Assembly segment); and PSMO College, Tirurangadi (for Vengara and Vallikkunnu Assembly segments).