Top party leaders woo voters at Piravom

Thirty Central government officials have been appointed as micro observers for the election.

It was a day of the biggies in Piravom on Sunday. With just five days left to end the campaigning, all the top politicians were in the constituency wooing the electorate.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and several of his Ministers, as well as a slew of senior UDF leaders, campaigned in the constituency speaking at meetings after meetings. On the LDF's side, the list of top leaders included Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, C.K. Chandrappan, Pannian Raveendran, Mathew T. Thomas, C. Diwakaran and Ramachandran Kadannappally.

LDF leaders concentrated on speaking at panchayat-level meetings. The micro-level campaign has been the main feature of the LDF's electioneering, while the UDF focussed on macro-level meetings which brought in a large number of leaders and attracted crowds.

The resignation of the CPI(M) MLA from Parassala from the Assembly was a constant refrain at UDF meetings, while at LDF meetings Anoop Jacob's ‘suppression of criminal case' in his nomination papers was alluded to.

Speaking at Eruveli in Chottanikkara panchayat late in the afternoon, CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan hit out at Oommen Chandy. Mr. Chandy was employing middlemen to get things done, and was claiming that he was doing everything in a transparent manner.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, speaking at a campaign rally at Koothattukulam, listed out the achievements of his government and asked the electorate to elect the UDF candidate, Anoop Jacob, to help continue the good work being done by his government.

Preparations continue

The Election Commission has deployed 30 Central government officials as micro observers for the election. Training for counting officials will be held at the Muvattupuzha taluk office on Sunday.

They will be given training to announce the result after nine rounds of counting spread over 14 tables. Facilities, including closed circuit televisions, will be readied to monitor the progress of counting.

The final round of training for polling officials will be held at the Muvattupuzha Town Hall on Tuesday.

District Collector P.I. Sheikh Pareed, who is also the district election officer, has given instructions to pass on information about officials who fail to turn up for duty.