IMPHAL, Aug 19: Most political parties active in Manipur have expressed their desire to hold the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly election in a single phase, informed Chief Electoral Officer VK Dewangan.
Dewangan told The Sangai Express that majority of the political parties are in favour of holding the election in a single phase so that voters cannot go to different polling stations for multiple voting.
However, the number of phases the election may be divided into would depend on the number of security forces available.
He said that as desired by the Election Commission of India (ECI) he went to Delhi and gave a detailed presentation about the election preparations taken up in the State before Chief Election Commissioner Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi.
During the meeting, the ECI expressed a keen desire to make the electoral roll which would be used in the State Assembly election error free.
A software developed by the ECI has already detected 3900 voters whose names and names of their parents are same or demographically similar in the terms of ECI. Officials have been instructed to verify the similarities on the ground, Dewangan said.
The CEO informed that a Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign would be launched in colleges so that youngsters who would reach 18 years of age on January 1, 2017 are enlisted in the electoral roll. More than 40,000 youngsters are likely to be enlisted for the first time in the electoral roll during the campaign.
Another software developed by the office of the CEO detected 5845 voters listed more than once under different polling stations and the respective Electoral Registration Officers have been instructed to verify the multiple entries.
At present, the State’s electoral roll has 4,60,407 electors whose photographs are not up to the desired quality. Due process has been already initiated to replace these photographs with standard ones and new photographs of 1,80,466 voters have been already collected.
After the draft electoral roll is released on September 7, special meetings of Gram Sabhas and village authorities would be held on September 10 and 24. Particulars of electors as listed in the electoral roll would be verified at these meetings. Necessary forms would be made available and errors would be rectified, Dewangan said.
As per the Census report of the State, the elector-population ratio should be 64:100 but the existing ratio is 61: 100. The ECI has asked the State to look into this anomaly.
A certificate course would be held for all the officials who would be assigned the duties of Returning Officers and Assistant Officers in the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly election. Officials who prove unsuccessful at the certificate course would not be given the duties of RO and ARO.
A team of the ECI would arrive here in the first week of September to make a direct assessment of the poll preparations, Dewangan informed.
He said that he discussed poll security, requisition of helicopter service and air ambulance for the polls during his meeting with ECI officials.
For the convenience of voters, political parties and transporters, the ECI would use three different apps namely Samadhan, Subidha and Sugam, the CEO added.
