All arrangements are in place in the capital district for the smooth conduct of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday. A total of 27.14 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in as many as 2,715 polling booths that have been readied up in the district.
In the fray are 17 candidates from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and 19 from the Attingal constituency. The distribution of polling materials was undertaken smoothly, following which they were brought to each polling stations by evening, District Election Officer K. Vasuki said.
For the first time, all booths will be equipped with VVPAT machines along with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) to enhance transparency. Polling will get under way at 7 a.m. and conclude at 6 p.m.
Mock polling will be conducted in all polling booths at 6 a.m. to ascertain the correct functioning of the voting units.
The polling station in the LMS LPS Ponnamkulam (main building, western portion) in the Parassala Assembly constituency will have the highest number of voters (1,426). The station that has been established in the Ponmudi UPS (eastern portion) in the Vamanapuram Assembly constituency will have the lowest number of voters (165).
Special security
Special security arrangements have been adopted in 835 vulnerable, critical and sensitive polling stations in the district. Among these, 97 polling stations have been identified as vulnerable.
After the completion of the elections, the EVMs and VVPAT units will be shifted to strong rooms at the counting centres in Mar Ivanios Nagar and will be guarded by Central forces until the day of counting on May 23.
Control rooms have commenced functioning in the District Collectorate to monitor the conduct of the polls. The public can contact the control rooms by dialing 0471-2731122 (for Attingal) or 0471-2731022 (for Thiruvananthapuram constituency).