Stephen Kayyar

Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod (SP)

Kasargod, May 14: 799 polling booths have been set up in the five assembly constituencies in the district for the assembly polls being held in the state on May 16. The district has 9,90,513 voters. District collector, A Devadas, who happens to be the returning officer of the district, said in a press conference that ten booths with exclusively women staff and 30 model polling booths have been set up for the election.

There are 1,03,404 male voters in Manjeshwar assembly constituency as against 1,03,741 women. Kasargod has 94,214 male voters and 94,214 women. Uduma has 97,214 men and 1,02,712 women. Kanhangad has 97,205 men voters and 1,07,240 women voters. Trikkaripura constituency has 88,794 men and 1,00,453 women. The district also has 1,150 NRI voters and 1,575 service voters, he added. "Voter slips have been distributed to all voters. We had included 23,165 voters afresh," he state.

4,141 polling booth staff will be on duty to manage the election. Voting materials for Manjeshwar, Kasargod, and Uduma constituencies would be distributed in the government college here, whereas things relating to Kanhangad and /trkaripura constituences would be distributed at Padannakad Nehru Arts and Science college, he said.

46 candidates are trying their luck in the five constituencies. Manjeshwar has eight candidates, Kasargod seven, Uduma 10, Kanhangad 12, and Trikkaripura nine.

A total of 186 polling booths have been identified as sensitive booths. For peaceful polling, eight contingents of central police force will be deployed. Webcasting facility would be provided in 99 booths. All institutions including government, private etc will declare holiday. Drinking water and toilet facility would be available in all polling booths. On May 16, holiday has been declared for government institutions, educational institutions, and companies in private and public domain. Eight contingents of central forces and five police in each of the booths will be providing security.

Voting will be allowed from 7 am to 6 pm. If there is still queue at 6 pm, tokens will be issued to those in the queu and will be allowed to vote, Devadas said. District information officer, K T Shekhar, and others were present at the press conference.