All set for April 9 Assembly polls in Kerala: CEO Rathan U. Kelkar

All arrangements are in place for the April 9 elections to the State Legislative Assembly, Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar has said. Open campaigning ended at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, starting a 48-hour silence period.

Polling will open at 7 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. on Thursday. In total, Kerala has 883 candidates contesting in 140 constituencies.

The State has a total electorate of 2,71,42,952, including 1,39,21,868 female voters, 1,32,20,811 male voters and 273 third gender voters. There are 2,42,093 overseas electors and 53,984 service voters this time.

The Election Commission of India (EC) has added 24 auxiliary polling stations, which takes the total number of polling stations to 30,495. The auxiliary stations have been opened to accommodate excess voters as the voter population per booth has been limited to 1,200, Mr. Kelkar said. The auxiliary stations have been opened in Kasaragod (5), Kannur (6), Malappuram (7) and Palakkad (6). Earlier, the EC had decided to do away with the concept of auxiliary stations.

Considering the summer temperatures, the polling stations will have drinking water an seats for the voters. Mobile phones will not be allowed inside the stations. Voters must leave their mobile phones at counters specially arranged for the purpose.

Ninety-eight per cent of the voters aged 85 and above who had applied for home voting have cast their vote, Mr. Kelkar said.

The EC has identified 2,040 critical polling stations in the State. A total of 74,000 police personnel including 160 companies of Central Armed Police Force have been deployed across the State as part of the security arrangements.

EC has banned exit polls from April 9 to April 29.

Apart from the Voters ID (EPIC) card, voters can produce any of the following documents to vote: Aadhaar Card, MGNREGA Job Card, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour/Ayushman Bharat Health Card, Driving License, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, Passport, Pension document with photograph, Service identity cards with photograph issued to employees by Central and State government, PSUs, Official identity cards issued to MPs and MLAs.

So far, the police have registered 180 FIRs during the election season. In all, 9.11 lakh violations have been reported in connection with the Model Code of Conduct.