13,000 officials deployed for poll duty: Collector

41,700 articles removed for violating code of conduct

District Collector C.A. Latha has said that all arrangements have been made in the district for a free and just election process.

Speaking to presspersons here on Tuesday, she said 13,000 officials had been deployed for election duty here, of which 10,165 had been appointed at various polling stations. These officials were trained for the process in two stages and had been given distinct identity cards. Arrangements had been made for the officials in duty to cast their votes through postal ballots or using election duty certificates, she said.

The Collector appreciated the efforts of election observers Ramankumar and Ashok Kumar, besides expense observers R. Srinivasan and P. Vijayakumar in the Kozhikode and Vadakara constituencies, respectively.

Special squads

Special squads had been formed in the district and at the Assembly constituency level to ensure that campaigns by political parties stuck to the election code of conduct. Around 41,700 articles had been removed by the squad for violating the code of conduct. The expense incurred for this would be included in the election expense of the respective candidates.

Election expenditure

Static surveillance teams, videography teams, and Assistant Expenditure Observers were been deployed all over the district for monitoring the election expenditure and enforcing the code of conduct, Ms. Latha added.

Arrangements were made at all polling stations for the comfort of voters, such as drinking water, toilets, ramp for the physically challenged, rest places, electricity, and shelter from the sun.

Voting machines and associated articles would be distributed in the district on Wednesday from 8 a.m. The services of the medical team and food would be made available at the distribution centres. The officials would be taken to their respective booths in vehicles.

The voting time would be from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 10. The voting machines and other documents would be collected from the polling stations after the voting and would be stored in a strong room until May 16 when the counting would be done.

Counting centres

The counting for the Kozhikode constituency would be held at Farookh College, Feroke, while the counting for the Vadakara constituency would be at the JDT Islam Complex, Vellimadukunnu.

A district election management plan was implemented this time in the district to smoothen the election process with the responsibilities distributed among 15 officials, the Collector said.