11,92,377 electorates to exercise franchise for Feb 23 polls in Nagaland
Our Correspondent
Kohima | January 24
Nagaland’s Chief Electoral Officer, J. Alam in his message on the occasion of National Voters’ Day has stated that every voter has only one vote and proxy voting or bogus voting are “offences punishable under the law.” “The right to vote and the right to be a voter are very important rights granted to all the citizens of the country. We need to make full use of it to elect MLAs, MPs that are most suitable to represent us,” he said.
The preparations for the polling in Nagaland which will be held on 23rd February are in full swing, he said. Till date the state have 11,92,000 voters which represents roughly 60% of the total population. “Nagaland became a full fledged State in 1963. Ever since, we have conducted 11 elections to the state assembly. Almost every election is an improvement over the previous one. This time too we hope to do much better than the last elections, Alam said adding that the main improvements over the last elections are that this time we have photo electoral rolls and photo identity slips are going to be issued to all the voters.
“We are making elaborate arrangements to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the state and we hope that we will receive the fullest cooperation of the political parties, village and town authorities, NGOs and the people at large to help us achieve our objective,” he said and further appreciated the efforts of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council for conducting Clean Election campaign to eliminate malpractices that have plagued election process in the past.
He also challenged one and all to join hands to conduct free, fair and peaceful elections with healthy competition and through a positive election Campaign “so that we can ensure healthy governance and a healthy state.”
Meanwhile, altogether 11,92,377 electorates will exercise their franchise in the forthcoming polls to elect 60 members in the House of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, scheduled for February 23. Out of 11,92377 electorates for February 23 polls, 6,03,650 are male and 5,88,727 female.
Out of the total voters, there are 16,322 fresh voters included in the age group of 18-19 years said Chief Electoral Officer, J. Alam while addressing a press conference here today on the preparedness of the state election department for a free and fair conduct of the elections 2013.
Alam said that in order to bring a change in the conduct of the polls and to provide better security throughout the election process, 11 police observers will be utilized, one each in every district. The police observers will be coordinating for proper functioning and deployment of security personnel in various locations, he said, adding that the 11 police observers will be deployed by the Election Commission of India so as to regulate that the security forces act in an impartial manner.
He also informed that a total of 35 observers, which include 22 general observers and 13 expenditure observers deployed by ECI would be arriving the state by January 30, while one special observer will be stationed in Kohima to coordinate with rest of the observers.
Alam said the expenditure sealing of a candidate is fixed at Rs. 8 lakh while all political parties have been asked to submit the lists of their star campaigners to the election department before the campaign starts lest the expenditure incurred by them would also be added to the expenditure of the particular candidate from the area.
CEO said about 13,000 security force, including police, village guards and home guards personnel would be put into action along with additional 180 companies of central forces, which takes the total security deployment to over 31,000 personnel.
In addition, he said a total of 14161 polling persons would be conducting polls in 2023 polling stations spread over the 60 Assembly constituencies.
POLLS HIGHLIGHT
*Electoral population ratio as per final roll 2013 is Male - 57.9% Female - 60.6% (Total - 59.2%.)
*Gender Ratio for the state as per census 2011 is 931.
*Gender ratio of the electorate as per final roll, 2013 is 975.
*Polling station with the highest nos. of voters- 30 AC – 11 PS Longhto (3642).
*Polling station with the lowest nos. of voters- 40 AC – 57 PS Lichuyan (32).
*Total number of Polling stations is 2023 PS Locations- 1832, Urban PSL- 303 and Rural PSL- 1529.
*Total EVM required- 2800.
*Total Number of polling personnel required- 14161
*Counting personnel required- 600.
*Total number of security personnel required- State Police/NAP/VG/HG – 13,000 (approx), CAPF- 180 Coys and 14 Coys being inducted on 2.2.2013.
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