Arunachal Pradesh to vote in simultaneous Lok Sabha & Assembly polls on April 19

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh will vote in the Lok Sabha elections and Assembly polls on April 19, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.

According to the EC, the notification for the assembly elections would be issued on March 20, after which the nomination process would begin. The last date for filing nomination papers is March 27, while scrutiny of papers will be done on March 28. The last date for the withdrawal of nominations is March 30.

The counting of votes for both Lok Sabha polls and assembly elections will be held on June 4.

Arunachal Pradesh has two Lok Sabha seats and a 60-member assembly.

The term of the present assembly ends on June 2.

The BJP won both Lok Sabha seats in the last elections. In the assembly, the BJP bagged 41 seats, JD (U) won seven seats, the NPP won five seats, the Congress secured four seats, the PPA won one seat, and two independent candidates also won.

The BJP has declared candidates for all the assembly seats and named Union Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju for the Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat and Tapir Gao as its candidate for the Arunachal East seat. The NCP has also announced the names of eight candidates for the assembly polls. There are a total of 8,82,816 electorates in the state, including 4,49,050 female voters, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pawan Kumar Sain said.

The photo electoral roll coverage in the state as of date is 100 percent, with an equal percentage of Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) coverage.

The northeastern state has a total of 2,226 polling stations. While the polling station No. 2-Pumao Primary School under Longding Assembly Constituency has the highest number of voters with 1462, the Malogam temporary structure in Malogam village under Hayuliang Constituency in Anjaw district has only one female voter.

Polling station No. 18-Luguthang under Mukto constituency in Tawang district is the highest polling station in the state, located at an altitude of about 13,383 ft.

Sain added that all necessary arrangements to conduct the elections have already been completed, and the training of all district election officers, returning officers, assistant returning officers, and various categories of nodal officers was completed by the CEO office.

Extensive awareness programmes about the use of EVM and VVPAT have been conducted in the districts, covering all accessible polling stations, including many foot-march locations, the CEO added that, for service voters, an electronically transmitted postal ballot system (ETPBS) would be used to facilitate hassle-free voting.

“First-level checking of EVMs has been completed in the entire state in the presence of representatives of national and state political parties over the course of many months. For poll day monitoring of the poll process in the state, webcasting and enabling communications in a real-time environment (ENCORE) will be used, and vehicles carrying reserve EVMs will be fitted with GPS in all cellular network-covered areas,” Sain said.

The 'Model Code of Conduct' comes into force in the state with the date of the announcement of the election. All government machinery should strictly follow the MCC. The Prevention of Defacement of Public Property Act and Rules will be mandatorily imposed by all deputy commissioners, he added.

Also read: Arunachal: Training for presiding officers, polling officials underway in Naharlagun

Also Watch: