President sounds bugle for first phase

The process for holding the five-phased Lok Sabha Elections went underway with President Pratibha Patil issuing the notification for the first phase poll to be held on April 16.

The first phase of notification is for 124 Lok Sabha seats that are spread over 17 States and Union Territories. The issuance of notification would propel political parties into quickly finishing the task of selection of candidates and quick-start the campaign.
The delimitation process that preceded the holding of Lok Sabha elections has resulted in the number of seats in the SC/ST category further increasing while the total number of seats remaining at 543.
The number of seats for the Scheduled Caste category has increased from 79 to 84 while that in the ST category has gone up from 41 to 47.

In all, there would be 714 million eligible voters. They would exercise their right to vote using 10.5 lakh electronic voting machines to be kept at 8.3 lakh polling stations.

Since elections to three state assemblies are also being held simultaneously, the process began there with the respective Governors issuing similar notifications. In the first phase elections will be held for 154 of the 294 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh and 70 of the 147 Assembly seats in Orissa.

The issuance of notification has also set the stage for the candidates filing their nominations. The new Lok Sabha has to be constituted before June 2 and the poll process would end with counting of votes on May16.