All arrangements are in place for conducting the by-election to the Payakaraopeta Assembly constituency where the polling would take place on June 12, Collector and District Election Officer Lav Agarwal told a press conference here on Sunday.
Not only in the Payakaraopeta Assembly segment area but also all over the district sale of liquor would be banned from 5 p.m. on Sunday till midnight of June 12 and also on June 15, the day the counting of votes would be held, he said.
Sending bulk SMS and conducting opinion poll was banned from 5 p.m. on Sunday till midnight of June 12. Holiday was declared in the Assembly segment area under the NI Act on the polling day.
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Mr. Agarwal said 12 news reports have been identified as paid news items and notices have been issued to the contesting candidates (in whose favour the items appeared). On the allegation made by some political parties that power cut was not imposed in the Assembly segment area, details were gathered and forwarded to the Election Commission.
The Collector said only the elector's identity photo card (EPIC) or the authenticated voter slip issued by the booth-level officer (BLO) would only be accepted as a proof of identity of the voter and not the 16 documents such as ration card, driving licence, PAN card, passport, bank account passbook, etc.
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The voter slip would be issued at the polling booth if a voter was not having one, on production of proof of identity. In case there was a mismatch between the EPIC and authenticated voter slip at the polling booth, the 16 documents such as ration card, driving license, passport, etc. would be accepted only as corroborative evidence, he said.
There are 271 Service voters among the 2,02,681 voters and ballot papers have been sent to them. The polling would take place in 231 polling stations which would be manned by 260 Presiding Officers, 260 Assistant Presiding Officers, 260 other polling officers and 260 micro-observers. A videographer would be present at each polling booth and web-casting of polling process would be done from 176 polling stations, with the help of a private agency and students of IIIT, Nuzvid. Mobile phones, cameras, or any other electronic gadget would be allowed inside the polling booth.
Randomisation of EVMs was done by the ECIL staff and the voting machines would be distributed to the polling staff from the Nakkapalli Mandal Complex. The EVMs would be received at the Dr. L. Bullayya College of Engineering for Women where the counting would be held on June 15.
Door-to-door campaigning would not be allowed and main leaders and star campaigners of all political parties would not be allowed to stay in the constituency once the 5 p.m. deadline for the campaign ended on Sunday.
Superintendent of Police G. Srinivasa Rao, Joint Collector in-charge D.V. Reddy and Returning Officer B. Dayanidhi were present.