Srinagar: Over 13.27 lakh people will exercise their franchise at 1635 polling stations to elect their representative to the Lok Sabha during the by-poll for Anantnag Parliamentary seat, scheduled to be held on April 12.
The last date for filing of nomination papers for the constituency is March 27 and last date of withdrawal of nominations is March 29.
Polling for the Anantnag Parliamentary seat is April 12, while as date of counting, as per the notification is April 15, 2017.
The Anantnag seat fell vacant after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who represented the constituency in the LoK Sabha, resigned on July 4 last year following her election to the Legislative Assembly.
An official spokesperson here today said that the constituency is spread over 4 revenue districts, 5 police districts and 16 assembly segments. “The parliamentary constituency has a total of 13,27,638 voters, including 1495 service voters, for which 1635 polling stations in 1146 locations have been designated,” he said.
He said that for smooth, free and fair conduct of the elections, 16 Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) have been designated, while as nodal officers, zonal and sectoral magistrates and teams for overall supervision of elections have been constituted for all the four districts in the constituency.
With respect to Election Photo Id-Card (EPIC) coverage, he said that Kulgam district has achieved 96.19 per cent, while as Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag have achieved 91 per cent, 91.77 percent and 95.35 percent respectively.
He said that different teams for surveillance, implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC), expenditure, flying squads have already been constituted for smooth conduct of the elections.
In addition, he said control rooms and Media Certification and Monitoring Committees have been established in all the districts of the Constituency.
Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Shantmanu directed the Returning Officer (RO) to constitute nodal officers at the parliamentary constituency level so that better coordination is ensured.
He also directed for giving magisterial powers to the magistrates associated with the elections.
He directed the RO to ensure the submission of daily reports especially the law and order reports for which the Police Control Room (PCR) Anantnag was entrusted to compile the details from all the districts for further submission to the CEO.
Mr Shantmanu stressed for coordination between civil administration and security agencies for the successful and transparent conduct of the elections. Besides, he called for early preparation of communication and transport plans at respective district levels.
Meanwhile, the CEO directed Nodal Officer SVEEP to conduct awareness camps on regular basis to inform people of voting rights and about importance and power of exercising franchise.
The CEO also stressed on effective formulation of the transport plan, communication plan and the training module for the election staff along with the zonal magistrates, so that it can be communicated to Chief Election Commission at the earliest.
For disseminating information regarding the by-elections, the CEO called for mass awareness about the electioneering process through the media.
Meanwhile, District Election Officer Anantnag Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, sought cooperation of the political parties for smooth, free and fair conduct of the elections.
He apprised representatives of different political parties about various guidelines of the model code of conduct and asked them to adhere to it strictly.
He advised them not to indulge in any defamatory personal remarks or issue any provocative statements which would vitiate the law and order scenario.
He also discussed the relocation of five polling stations in the district and apprised them about the reasons of change, which was well taken by the representatives of political parties.
Meanwhile, the representatives put forth various suggestions before the DEO for making election process impartial and transparent. The DEO assured the representatives that the issues would be looked into and necessary directions, if needed, will be issued at the earliest.
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