According to Collector and District Election Officer Anish Shekhar, before the polling for the urban local bodies in the district on February 19, 32 percent of the booth slips have been distributed by the election staff and the remaining will be issued in the next two to three days.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said all preparations have been completed. Marks assigned to the candidates were pasted on the ballot machines. Surveillance cameras are being installed at the polling stations as per the guidelines of the State Election Commission.
He said there were 1,615 polling stations in Madurai and 15,78,136 voters were expected to cast their votes for councilors in Madurai Corporation (13,43,694), three municipalities (1,15,600) and nine nagar panchayats (1,18,642) .
Responding to a query, Dr. Anish Shekhar said that there were 338 sensitive and critical polling stations and micro observers through live web streaming would monitor the process with regular staff deployed at the polling stations.
So far, the flying squads have received Rs 6.43 lakh in cash and the Special Control Room has received eight complaints. Postal votes for Government servants will be sent by the Returning Officer concerned.
In order to create awareness about the need for 100% voting by eligible voters, the contests were announced by the Election Commission. To include all categories of people, it proposed three categories: institutional, professional and amateur in which school and college students and the general public could participate.
Participants can register themselves in Quiz Competition, Slogan Writing, Video Making, Poster Making, Songs etc and the winners will get amazing prizes. Candidates may visit the website of Election Commission (https//ecisveep.nic.in) for more details. Dr. Anish Shekhar said that the last date for sending entries was March 15.