SRINAGAR: In Ladakh Union Territory, the election authorities have set up a polling station for five members of a family in a remote village of Washi in Leh district. Ladakh chief electoral officer (CEO) Yetindra M Maralkar said, “A polling station has been set up under a tent in the remote village of Washi in Nubra, around 170 kms from Leh, as part of the Election Commission’s efforts to ensure 100 per cent participation of people in the electoral process.”
Voting for Ladakh Lok Sabha seat will be held in the 5th phase on May 20 and it will be the first major electoral exercise in the cold desert region after scrapping of Articles 370 and bifurcation of J&K state into two UTs – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh -- on August 5, 2019.
“The five members of a single family are eligible to cast their vote in the village and the tented polling station has been at their doorstep,” Maralkar said. The family comprises six members and five of them -- two males and three females -- are eligible to vote. The head of the family is a farmer.
The Ladakh UT comprises two districts – Muslim- dominated Kargil and Buddhist-dominated Leh. A total electorate of 1,82,571, including 91,703 males and 90868 females, are eligible to vote. The EC has set up 577 polling stations across the UT, including 33 in urban and 544 in rural areas. In view of inaccessibility of some polling stations in Ladakh, the polling material and staff will be airlifted to remote villages.