Electronic Voting Machines were dispatched on Tuesday to 290 booths at 119 polling stations where 2,40,290 voters will cast their votes in Wednesday’s by-election to the Yercaud Assembly Constituency, which is reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Tribes.
Officials said tight security was being provided at the polling stations to prevent any incident of violation or violence.
Polling will begin at 8 a.m. in the polling stations spread across four taluks – entire Yercaud and Vazhapadi and a part of Salem and Attur taluks — and end at 5 p.m.
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Yercaud has 41 booths, Vazhapadi 179, Salem 58 and Attur 12.
After three rounds of randomisation, all the 1,402 staff enlisted for polling duty were given orders of posting at various booths on Tuesday.
General Observer for the by-election Ravi Prakash Arora, District Electoral Officer K. Maharabushanam, Returning Officer T. Sabapathy and officials from the police and revenue departments supervised the dispatching of materials to the booths from the Salem Government Arts College, where the electronic voting machines were kept in the strong room.
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Superintendent of Police (SP) R. Sakthivel said that 2,900 police and paramilitary personnel had been deployed for the security arrangements. “They include 800 police personnel from Salem and 700 from Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri”, he said.
About the booth level arrangements, he said that each polling booth will be manned by one local police personnel, while a team of five headed by a Sub Inspector (SI) will be stationed 200 metres from the polling station to prevent untoward incidents or violations outside the booths.
“We have identified 29 cluster stations – polling stations with more than four booths – where additional security of five local police personnel headed by an SI will be posted. A team of four Central Reserve Police Force or Central Industrial Security Force personnel will be stationed at each of the 119 polling stations, in addition to the local police”, he added.
Accident
A truck carrying the EVMs rammed a government bus that came in the opposite direction near Ayothiyapattinam on Tuesday.
According to the police, a sub-inspector and other police who were escorting seven EVMs escaped with injuries.
They added that the policemen were out of danger and that the EVMs were also safe.
According to Karipatti Police, the truck was heading to one of the polling stations at Neiyamalai. Investigations are on.