Preparations for Tamil Nadu local body polls in full swing

The State Election Commission is communicating with other States for getting the required number of EVMs.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

CHENNAI :  The State Election Commission (SEC) is expediting the arrangements for conducting the much awaited elections to the local bodies. As of now, the SEC is working to fulfil the promise made to the Supreme Court that the notification for the elections would be issued by October 31. 

“Elections will happen within 45 days of notification. The SEC is communicating with other States for getting Electronic Voting Machines. From September first week, SEC officials will visit Karnataka and Bihar for getting EVMs. Ballot boxes have been transferred from Kerala.  State Election Commissioner R Palaniswami is keen that the required number of EVMs should reach Tamil Nadu by mid-September,” an official source said. 

The source further said from the second week of September, overhauling of the EVMs, etc, would take place. After this, SEC will conduct random check-ups in select polling booths across the State and send information to the district administration that everything is ready for conducting the elections.  

“So far, indirect election was held for the posts like mayor etc, now, these posts are going to be filled up through direct elections. As such, apart from the number of EVMs available in Tamil Nadu, we need more machines. After the delimitation exercise and due to the increase in the population, the number of polling stations have also increased in the State (around 92,000). So, in all, we require around 1.44 lakh EVMs (including ballot units) for urban local bodies alone. Hence, additional EVMs are being procured from other States with the help of the Election Commission,” the official told Express. 

“In rural local bodies, only ballot boxes and ballot papers are used while in urban local bodies, EVMs are used. The exception is Melpuram panchayat union in Kanniyakumari district (rural local body) where the SEC is using EVMs on an experimental basis. In all, we require 2.11 lakh ballot boxes but we have 2.31 lakh in hand. This includes the 5,000 ballot boxes received from Kerala. These would be kept as surplus boxes,” the source added.

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