The number of polling stations for the local body elections for the Chennai Corporation Council this year will increase to 5,720 from 5,211 in the previous election.

As a result, many of the electors who voted in a particular polling station in the last election are likely to be asked to vote in a different location. The local body elections are expected to be held in August.

Following a meeting of political parties on Tuesday, civic officials said many new buildings across the city have been identified for setting up polling stations. “At least 86 new buildings have been identified as new polling stations. These include private schools and government buildings. The stations have been included in the draft for easy access to residents in each of the 200 wards,” an official said.

Many representatives of political parties stressed on the need for improving access to residents after delimitation of the city’s wards.

Easy access

“The polling station of every resident will be less than 2 km away from home,” an official said. The draft polling station list has been published this week at all 200 ward offices, 15 zonal offices, revenue offices and the District Election Office in the Ripon Buildings.

“It has been ensured that almost all the polling stations for the recent Parliamentary election have been included for the local body election. We have requested representatives of political parties, Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assembly to offer suggestions on the change of the polling stations. The representations will be considered. The final list will be prepared shortly. The report will be sent to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission,” an official said.

The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission has asked the civic body to finalise the draft polling stations on the basis of the newly delimited wards. “Correlation statement of the mother roll and supplementary roll of the existing Assembly segments has been done for the generated till March 26, 2019,” an official said.

During the council elections in 2011, 1,384 polling stations were developed for women, 1,384 polling stations for men and 2,108 polling stations for all voters. The total number of polling stations for all the 200 wards in the city in 2011 was 4,876. According to the data compiled for the local body election in 2016, just 160 polling stations were developed for women, 160 polling stations for men and 5,211 polling stations were developed for all voters. The total number of polling stations proposed in 2016 was 5,531.

Former Chennai Mayor and Saidapet MLA Ma. Subramanian said the delimitation was unnecessary. “A meeting should have been before notification of the wards. The officials should explain how the delimitation was done,” he said.