The preparations for the by-election to the Aruvikkara Assembly constituency are complete, District Collector A. Kowsigan said at a press conference at the collectorate here on Wednesday.
As per the voter’s list published on June 10, there are 1,84,223 voters in the constituency. Out of this, there are 97,535 women and 86,688 men. There are 154 polling booths, including one auxiliary booth. A total of 16 candidates will be in contention.
In each polling booth, there will be one control unit and two ballot units. The first ballot unit will have the names of all the 16 candidates and the second one will have just the NOTA option. The photographs of all the candidates will be displayed along with their names and symbols in the electronic voting machines (EVM)s as well as the postal ballot papers.
As many as 991 postal ballot papers have been despatched on June 15. Postal votes will be accepted till 8 a.m. on June 30, the day of counting. Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Nedumangad will be the distribution point for the EVMs. After the polling, the EVMs will be stored at the school, before being taken to the counting centre, Swathi Thirunal Music College, Thycaud. A public holiday has been declared in the constituency on June 27, the polling day. June 26 and 27 will be holidays for Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Nedumangad, and the adjacent Government Boys Upper Primary School, which will be used as a parking lot for the polling officers. The schools which are polling stations will have a holiday on June 26. The music college will have holidays on June 29 and 30.
