Our Correspondent
Imphal, Dec. 14 (EMN): A team of Election Commission of India(ECI) is expected to visit Manipur soon to oversee the preparation for the Assembly elections scheduled to be held early next year, Chief Electoral officer (CEO) of Manipur, Rajesh Agarwal said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference in Imphal, CEO Manipur Agarwal also expected that the elections will be announced after the ECI team’s visit to the state.
Elaborating on the ongoing preparations, CEO Agarwal said the total number of voters in the state this time is likely to cross 20 lakh with the completion of filing claims and objections for Special Summary Revision (SSR) adding that the final Electoral Rolls will be published on January 5, 2022 as per the schedule fixed by ECI.
It may be mentioned that the office of the CEO Manipur had published the draft electoral roll for the state which has 19,68,476 voters including 10,12,655 women, 9,55,657 men and 164 members of the third gender.
During the month-long Special Summary Revision (SSR), which ends on November 30, more than 1.43 lakh forms have been received. Out of which about 90,000 are newly registered voters and majority of them are first time voters, CEO said.
He informed that First-Level Checking (FLC) of M3-EVMs was completed for all the districts last month and an additional 1000 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) have been received from Assam and distributed to all districts.
Six assembly constituencies -- Andro, Wangoi, Mayang Imphal, Thanga, Lilong and Churachandpur have been identified as Expenditure Sensitive Constituencies.
Flying squad team, static surveillance team, video surveillance team, video viewing team, accounting team have been appointed and trained.
He added the political parties have been extending full cooperation during the revision period and in the run up to the conduct of the ensuing general election by giving valuable feedback and suggestions.
As a measure to curb pre poll violence, 8648 licensed arms have been deposited to the nearest police stations out of 25299 till date, he added.
On the requirement of the vehicles, he said altogether 6588 vehicles of different types shall be required for polling personnel and security personnel on poll duty. The CEO had requested Assam and Nagaland authorities to extend cooperation in requisition of around 3000 heavy vehicles for interstate transportation of Central Armed Police Force.