The Election Commission has appointed 224 general observers and around 90 election expenditure observers for the May 5 Assembly polls in Karnataka.
Besides, the commission appointed 30 police officers, one for each district, to ensure law and order during campaigning, on the polling day, and on the day of counting of votes (May 8).
General observers
While the general observers, who are IAS officers of the rank of Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary, have been appointed for each of the 224 constituencies, each of the election expenditure observers, who are mostly officers drawn from the Income Tax, Central Excise and Customs besides the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, will look after two or three Assembly constituencies.
The police observers will be officers drawn from the Indian Police Service and they will be in the rank of Deputy Inspector-General and above, sources said.
The commission has planned an orientation programme for the observers on April 6 in Delhi before they take charge of their respective constituencies on April 10. Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath and Election Commissioners H.S. Brahma and S.N.A. Zaidi will address them.
The sources said that if need be, the commission would also depute special observers, who are mostly chief electoral officers of other States, to visit Karnataka during election time and ensure free and fair polling.
As many as 4.18 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.
The Election Commission is setting up 50,446 polling stations.
