Piravom Assembly constituency will witness one of the crucial elections in its history as the 1.83-lakh strong electorate will exercise their franchise in 134 polling booths spread over 14 panchayats from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
Of the total electorate, 90,264 are men and 93,229 women. Armed forces personnel and their family have been allowed service votes. The constituency has 323 service voters. Nine candidates are in the fray.
Polling officials for booths have been finalised out of the 850 persons on Friday. Tight security arrangements have been made for the maintenance of law and order in the constituency.
Polling materials were distributed to polling officials from the Nirmala Junior School, Muvattupuzha, from Friday morning under the supervision of the Returning Officer E.R. Shobhana.
Polling officials reached the respective booths assigned to them by the afternoon.
General Observer Umakant Panwar and revenue divisional officer Moniyamma visited the distribution centre and reviewed the arrangements. Assistant Collector Bhandari Swagat Ranveer Chand, election deputy collector S. Shanavas, Muvattupuzha tahsildar T.S. Swarnamma and assistant returning officer M. Aravindakshan led the distribution process.
Voting compartments and other arrangements were made at the polling stations overnight. As many as 185 electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been deployed for voting. Sectoral officers have been deployed for rectifying and, if necessary, replacing EVMs if they develop any snag.
Voters in the queue at 5 p.m. will be allowed to vote. Voter's identity card or voter's slips distributed by booth-level officials should be produced for voting. Polling will start following a mock poll in the presence of agents of candidates at 6 p.m.
Thirty micro observers and shadow observers have been deployed. Fifteen sectoral officers will be deployed with each of them in charge of 10 booths. Polling in 14 booths out of the 26 sensitive booths will be webcast. Of this, two booths are within the limits of the city police and the other 12 in rural district.
Medical care, including doctors, para-medical staff, medicines and ambulance service, will be arranged for polling officials in association with taluk headquarters hospitals.
