Thirty companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) have arrived in the State ahead of the April 6 Assembly elections. Kerala has placed a request for 150 companies this time, a majority of which will be deployed in critical and vulnerable areas of the State.
The deployment of Central forces are being finalised by a committee consisting of the Chief Electoral Officer, State police nodal officer and State CAPF coordinator to ensure optimal and impartial use of the forces.
This time, the number of polling stations in the State has shot up by 89.65% over the 2016 Assembly polls due to an Election Commission of India (ECI) directive in view of COVID-19 to limit the number of electors per booth to 1,000.
There will be 40,771 stations in all, compared to 21,498 in 2016. All the polling stations will be on the ground floor of the building.
In all, 2,67,31,509 voters had figured in the final voters' list published by the commission on January 21. Of this, 1,37,79,263 are women, 1,29,52,025 are men and 221 are transgender persons. First-time voters aged 18 and 19 number 2,99,258. The supplementary list of voters will be published 10 days before the withdrawal of nominations.
Recently, Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena had kicked off the vaccination for election officials. It is estimated that around three lakh officials will be inoculated ahead of the elections.
