Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 19: The Election Commission of India has deputed four senior IAS officers as Observers for Anantnag by-election, where Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti is among eight candidates trying their luck. Polling will be held on June 22 while campaigning will come to an end at 6 pm tomorrow.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shantmanu told the Excelsior after high level review of election arrangements for Anantnag by-poll that the Election Commission of India has deputed four IAS officers as Observers for the election while the State Election Department has deployed 77 Macro Observers to oversee the polling and campaigning.
“All arrangements for smooth conduct of the by-poll including deployment of security forces and police have been made. The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and polling staff will be dispatched to all 119 polling stations a day before the voting or in the morning of polling day,” he said.
The Observers appointed by the Election Commission of India included GL Mena, Nitya Sunder Trivedi, both General Observers, Jai Narayan Singh, Police Observer and Kumar Pranav, Expenditure Observer.
All four Election Commission observers today held high level review of election preparedness with CEO Shantmanu in Anantnag along with DIG South Kashmir Nitish Kumar, District Election Officer, Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah and SSP Anantnag Abdul Jabbar among others.
Shantmanu said additional companies of para-military forces along with police personnel have taken their position in Anantnag Assembly constituency and the polling stations, where sanitization operations were required. At rest of the polling stations, the para-military and police personnel would be deployed on June 21, a day ahead of the polling on June 22.
“To maintain transparency, we will be webcasting the polling in 30 polling stations out of a total of 119 set up for voting in the entire Assembly constituency,” the CEO J&K said, adding there will be 20 Model Polling Stations.
Out of 119 polling stations, 102 have been set up in Anantnag Assembly segment and 17 for migrant voters, which included 15 in Jammu and one each at Udhampur and New Delhi. Every polling station will have two EVMs each. In addition, the Sectoral Magistrates and Observers will have EVMs available with them to replace any faulty machine in the polling stations.
The CEO said Degree College, Anantnag has been converted into the Control Room for the election purposes. The polling parties comprising total of 376 officials (four each for one station) will leave the Control Room on June 21 and return there in the evening on June 22 after polling. However, the staff for migrant polling stations will leave from the district headquarters.
Counting will also be held at the Degree College, Anantnag on June 25. Till completion of the counting, the Control Room will remain functional round-the-clock from today onwards.
Shantmanu said they have so far received three to four complaints of violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) but they were not significant.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who represents Anantnag-Pulwama (South Kashmir) in Lok Sabha, is involved in high-voltage contest for Anantnag by-election, a seat which had fallen vacant on January 7 due to sudden death of her father and then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The seat had to be filled before July 7 i.e. within six months of being declared as vacant.
Mehbooba, who is not a member of either House (Assembly or Council) had to become member of any of them till October 4 as she had taken oath as the Chief Minister on April 4. However, if elected, she would have to quit her Lok Sabha membership before taking oath as an MLA.
Mehbooba is involved in triangular fight with National Conference candidate Iftikhar Misger and Congress nominee Hillal Ahmad Shah besides five Independents. Both Misger and Shah had also contested 2014 Assembly election against Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Follow our WhatsApp channel