Our returning officers will prepare a list of disabled voters from and will arrange volunteers to assist them to cast votes, says BB Swain
In a first for voters in Gujarat, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to have the navigation map of polling station on the back of voter slips which will be distributed a week before the Assembly elections, scheduled to held later this year. This was proposed by state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) BB Swain during a meeting called by the EC to review preparations for the polls.
Talking to media-persons, Swain said, “We will distribute voting slips a week before the elections. The navigation map is to help voters avoid any confusion in locating their polling stations. The maps will be prepared from the navigation platform available on the Internet.”
At the meeting, held on Wednesday and Thursday, it was also decided to have volunteers at polling stations to provide special assistance to disabled voters to cast their votes.
“Our returning officers will prepare a list of disabled voters from the electoral roll. They will ensure this particular is mentioned on the rolls,” Swain said.
The returning officers will visit them a few days before polling and ask if they require assistance of volunteers. Those who need help will get it at polling stations,” said Swain.
There is a possibility that the polling station may change as the EC has increased their number, looking at the increase in number of voters.
As compared to the 2012 assembly elections, the number of voters has gone up by 52.45 lakh for the upcoming elections. From 3.80 crore in the previous elections, the number of voters has touched 4.33 crore. The number of registered male voters is 2.25 crore and female voters is 2.08 crore.
The EC has capped the number of voters per polling booth to 1,400 in urban areas and 1,200 in rural areas. There will be a total 50,120 polling stations for the upcoming Gujarat polls, as compared with 44,579 in 2012.
“We are going to submit the mother list of voters registered till September 25 and that will be final. That does not mean people cannot register as voters. But the ECI will be given this list and the returning officers will be given the same list for the polling day. Those who register themselves as voters after September 25 can cast their votes by showing proper proofs at polling stations,” added Swain.
The CEO had conducted electoral roll revision programme twice this year — in January and July. As many as 24 lakh people had applied for addition of their names in the list, and after verification, 15.40 lakh new names were added.
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