IMPHAL, March 5: The election schedule for the 16th Lok Sabha election has been fixed on April 9 for the outer parliamentary constituency and April 17 for the inner parliamentary constituency as announced by the chief election officer Oinam Nabakishore, also the additional chief secretary of Manipur on Wednesday.
In a press briefing at his chamber, O Nabakishore said, “The elections will be conducted in nine phases all across India. The poll date for the outer Manipur constituency, to be held in the first phase, has been fixed on April 9 while in the second phase election to the inner Manipur parliamentary constituency, fixed on April 17, will be conducted.”
For the outer Manipur parliamentary seat, the notification will be issued on March 15 and the last date of filling the nominations will be on March 22. Scrutiny of the nominations will be done on March 24 while the last date for withdrawing their candidature is on March 26. For the inner parliamentary constituency, the notification will be issued on March 19; the last date of filling nominations will be on March 26; scrutiny of nominations will be done on March 27 while the last date of the withdrawal of candidature will be March 29. The counting of votes for the whole country will be on May 16 and the whole process of election shall be complete on or before ay 28 May, he added.
“He said that with the announcement of the election schedule by the Election Commission of India, the model of code of conduct comes into effect immediately from March 5. The order will be applicable throughout the country to all candidates, political parties, states and the union government. ECI directed to comply strictly with the model code of conduct with immediate effect till the election process is completed,” he said, “ With the code of conduct coming into effect, minister should not officially visit any function or programme related with elections. No government vehicle or machinery would be allowed at public meetings. Government funds used for advertisement in the media is restricted. Transfer of posting for the election related officers of any department is banned; MLAs local area development funds can’t be released.”
On March 9, a booth level campaign at every polling booth of the state displaying the electoral rolls recently published in 2014 by the booth level officer will be conducted.
Deputy Commissioner of Imphal West K Radhakumar will be the returning officer of the inner parliamentary constituency; as for the outer inner parliamentary seat, Deputy Commissioner Thoubal P Ranjit has been selected as the returning officer.
Oinam Nabakishore mentioned that for the security of the election the state has requested the centre for deploying adequate numbers of paramilitary forces.
EVMs will be used in the elections. There will be 2662 polling station for the election. 13,000 voters submitted for enrolment after the final publication figure of the 2014 electoral roll so it may see an increase till the last date of nomination file. The actual figure of voters can be known only on that day. Every polling state will have five polling personnel. A new button called NOTA (none of the above) to indicate that you don’t like to give your vote to any of the candidates is going to be introduced, he added.
He also appealed to all political parties and voters to help conduct a free and fair election.