The Mysore District Adminstration is fully geared up to conduct free and fair Assembly polls on May 5 (Sunday), said Deputy Commissioner and District Electoral Officer C. Shikha today.

Addressing press persons at her office here, Shikha said 2,373 polling stations would be set up in the district out of which 387 were identified as hyper sensitive, 805 as sensitive and 1181 as normal booths. A total of 5,427 election officials have been appointed for conducting the election process. Each booth will have one Presiding Officer, three Polling Officers and a Booth-level Officer. The mustering and de-mustering centres have been identified for the 11 Assembly constituencies in the district. While the mustering process will be held on May 4, the de-mustering will be held on May 8.

The polling process will be held from 7 am to 5 pm on May 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up from 8 am on May 8 at the respective counting centres.

The counting process for HD Kote, Nanjangud, Chamundeshwari, Varuna and T. Narasipur Assembly constituencies will be held at JSS College, Ooty Road while the counting of votes for Narasimharaja, K.R. Nagar, Hunsur, Krishnaraja and Chamaraja constituencies will be held at SJCE. The results are expected to be announced on the same day.

Shikha also mentioned that a total of 7,107 postal votes were cast till now and for those who had not cast their votes the same will be done through speed posts. Since the public campaign comes to an end at 5 pm today, the candidates will be allowed to visit individual houses accompanied by 5 persons.

Heavy Police security will be deployed at hyper-sensitive and sensitive booths while the polling process for the selected 53 booths will be webcast live. The Election Commission has also appointed 775 micro observers through the district to ensure smooth conduct of election process. Till now, 5 persons have been banished from district for a period of 15 days and 9 persons have been instructed to visit their respective jurisdictional Police Stations twice every day.

Shikha mentioned that citizens can produce either any of the 23 documents as proof of identification on the polling day. The district administration has deployed 1139 vehicles which include 387 KSRTC buses, 145 matadors, 329 light motor vehicles, 74 trucks and 204 government vehicles for election duty.

This apart, voters’ slip is being distributed according to the alphabetical order to the citizens by the district administration as per the direction of the Election Commission. Shikha said that the voters’ slip will be distributed to the citizens within 5 pm on May 4. This apart, the candidates will be allowed to keep 2 chairs and 1 table and erect a 3x4½ banner on the day of polls.

Police Commissioner K.L. Sudheer said that on the day of election, 12 platoons of KSRP, Para Military Force, Mounted Police, 10 platoons of CAR, NSS volunteers, Home Guards, Ex-servicemen and Retired Police Officials will be deployed at various points for security purpose.

Courtesy : Star Of Mysore