No NOTA vote in local body elections

EVMs to be used for the first time in three-tier polls in State

State Election Commissioner K. Sasidharan Nair describes the functioning of electronic voting machines to leaders of political parties at an all-party meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.— Photo: S. Gopakumar

The local body elections due in September will not have the provision for scratch vote or None of the Above (NOTA) vote, State Election Commissioner K. Sasidharan Nair has said.

Chairing an all-party meeting here on Monday in connection with the local body elections, Mr. Sasidharan Nair said the Panchayati Raj and Municipalities Act would have to be amended for including provisions for negative vote.

Electronic voting machines would be introduced for the first time in the three-tier elections in the State.

Multi-post electronic voting machines would be used for casting votes to district, block, and grama panchayats simultaneously.

Introduction of EVMs would help announce the election results in a day. When a mock poll was held at Mangalapuram near here to familiarise voters with the functioning of the new voting machine, representatives of all political parties had expressed satisfaction with its functioning, Mr.Sasidharan Nair said.

The EVMs had three ballot units and a control unit. Names of 15 candidates could be entered into one ballot unit.

More units could be used if the list of candidates was exhaustive.

The commission had decided to introduce photo-identity cards in the elections.

The commission decided to adopt the voters’ list prepared by the Central Election Commission for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections for the local body elections too. The CEC voters’ list had been adopted with ward-wise details. The draft ward-wise voters list would be published next month.

Application for enrolment, transfer, and deletion of names could be submitted after publishing the draft list. As many as 35,000 booths would be set up for the smooth conduct of the elections.

The Delimitation Commission had started functioning.

He requested representatives of political parties to ensure that the campaign was conducted in an environment friendly manner.

Representatives of national and State parties and those having representation in the Assembly also attended the meeting.

Commission Secretary K.Geetha and other officials attended the meeting.