Preparatory work for the ensuing Parliament elections has been completed and notification for Phase-I elections in Telananga would be issued on March 18, said Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar.
Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, the CEO said the Election Commission accepted the applications for enrolment of voters till March 15 and a supplementary list would be published after March 25.
The EC published the final rolls on February 22 with over 2.95 lakh voters, and it subsequently accepted applications for enrolment till March 15 when over three lakh voters applied. “We expect the number of voters to touch about three crore with the latest enrolment and verification,” he said.
Referring to the complaints on distribution of photo voter slips, he said measures were taken to ensure that the booth-level officers would distribute them property.
Even if some did not get it, they could pick up the undistributed photo voter slips from booth-level offices on the polling day. However, the EPIC cards or any of the 11 authorised identity proof documents were enough to cast vote, he said.
The new EPIC cards would be issued to those who applied after November 9 and before March 25. They have already despatched three lakh cards for the newly-enrolled voters. Those who want replacement of the EPIC cards can pay ₹25 at the MeeSeva centres and can collect the same. The EPIC cards would be issued till April 5, Mr. Kumar said.
Elaborating on the preparatory work, he said the First Level Check (FLC) has been completed in all the districts except Karimnagar, Siddipet, Vikarabad, Mahabubnagar and Suryapet and the EVMs were checked by engineers to ensure that the ballot units, control units, and VVPATs were in order. The FLC would be completed in the remaining five districts in a few days.
A total of 1,85,560 persons were identified for the polling duty, including 43,801 Presiding Officers and same number of Assistant Presiding Officers. The training for polling personnel would be organised in a couple of days.
He said in 20 constituencies where the election-related petitions were pending, the EVMs would not be touched till they were released by the court. Thus, new EVMs were allotted by the ECIL in those constituencies.
Mr. Kumar said till March 15, ₹2.76 crore, 4,770 litres of liquor, contraband goods like cocaine and heroin worth ₹1 crore were seized.
A complaint lodged by the Congress about political activity at Pragathi Bhavan would be taken to the Election Commission, Mr. Kumar said and added that the defection of MLAs would not come under the purview of model code of conduct.
On missing voters’ names, he said 35 lakh names of voters, that were deleted in 2015 as part of the purification of electoral rolls, were given to booth-level officers and were asked to cross-check. Following verification, 2.48 lakh voters, whose names were deleted, has been re-enrolled.
Touching on the poor turn out of voters in the recent Assembly elections in Hyderabad, he said it was 49% and the voter turnout in 2014 was also 48%. In the November elections, polling was held on a Friday and many had gone out of city for the long weekend. This time, as the polling day falls on Tuesday, he hopes that the turnout would be better.
