Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs) would be installed in polling booths where urban local body elections are to be held in Tiruchi district. Web cameras would be installed in polling booths identified as sensitive.
Disclosing this at a press conference, Collector S. Sivarasu said that there would be 1,262 polling booths in all and CCTV cameras would be installed in 1,105 booths and web cameras in the rest for live streaming of the polling. As of now, 157 polling booths in various urban local bodies had been identified as sensitive in the district. “However, this number may go up after the nomination process is over, depending on the candidates and their background,” Mr. Sivarasu said.
Micro observers would be nominated to supervise polling in sensitive booths. For the first time, filing of nominations would be recorded through surveillance cameras.
A total of 10.58 lakh voters would exercise their franchise in the elections to be held for the Tiruchi corporation, five municipalities and 14 town panchayats in the district. Of this, about 7.74 lakh voters were in Tiruchi corporation. The names of the newly-added voters, included during the special summary revision held with January 1, 2022 as qualifying date, would be issued as supplementary voter list.
A little over 1,500 electronic voting machines would be used for polling. However, they would not have Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices, which would enable electors to confirm that they had cast their vote for the intended candidate.
Nearly 5,800 polling officials would be deployed for conducting the elections and they would undergo three rounds of training on the polling procedure. All polling officials would be fully vaccinated.
Mr.Sivarasu, who chaired a meeting with representatives of recognised political parties earlier to brief them on the model code of conduct and COVID-19 safety protocol to be followed during electioneering, said that the restrictions announced by the State Election Commission would be strictly enforced. Not more than 100 persons can participate in indoor campaign meetings. Campaigning would not be permitted between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Counting of votes polled for the election to the Tiruchi Corporation wards would be taken up at the counting centre at Jamal Mohamed College. Votes polled in other urban local bodies would be counted at six other counting centres in the district.
No nomination
Meanwhile, no nomination was received for any of the wards for the urban local bodies in the district on the first day of filing of nominations. February 4 is the last date for filing of nominations.
