Pink booths for women, pick-and-drop facility for the elderly and the disabled at all polling stations, and live monitoring of the voting process are among the arrangements the Election Commission has made for the Lok Sabha election in the Capital on May 25.
In a first for the city, seven polling booths will be managed by persons with disabilities.
According to Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P. Krishnamurthy, over one lakh polling personnel will man 13,641 polling booths at 2,627 locations. Seventy polling booths will be managed exclusively by women.
The Delhi CEO also said that 46 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces, 78,578 Delhi Police personnel and 19,000 home guards will be deployed as part of the security arrangements.
“Around 8,000 volunteers will help us in the process. There will be 3,500 wheelchairs at polling stations to facilitate the elderly and the differently-abled,” Mr. Krishnamurthy said. He said 1.5 crore people in the Capital are eligible to vote this time, around 8.85 lakh more than those in the 2019 general election.
First-time voters
“Around 2.52 lakh are first-time voters. Over 82 lakh are men and more than 69 lakh women,” he said, adding that 1,228 third-gender persons will also be eligible to vote.
Mr. Krishnamurthy said a maximum of 18,000 people will be able to vote at each polling station.
Sensitive polling booths
As many as 2,891 polling booths have been identified as sensitive, which will be under constant live monitoring. Webcasting will be done at 50% of the stations, the Delhi CEO said.
“Adequate arrangements have been made to ensure the comfort and safety of voters factoring in the heatwave,” he added. Mr. Krishnamurthy said properly shaded waiting area, safe drinking water, medical kits with paramedical staff will also be provided at each polling station.
According to officials, 290 candidates had filed their papers for the election in the Capital till Monday, the last date for the nomination process.
