Puducherry to go to polls on April 19

Preparations are in full swing to conduct the elections for the lone Parliamentary seat in Puducherry on April 19, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P. Jawahar said here on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference at the media centre in the Chief Secretariat, the CEO said the poll process of filing the nomination will start with the issuance of the notification on March 20. As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, the last date for filing the nomination for Puducherry seat will be on March 27. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on March 28 and the last date for withdrawal will be on March 30, he said.

Of the total electorate of 10,20,914 in the Union Territory, 5,41,437 are women voters, 4,79,329 male and 148 third gender electorates. After the publication of final electoral roll, applications for addition, deletion and correction which were received will be added after processing.

Applications received 10 days before the last date for nomination of candidates for inclusion will be included in the second supplement containing new inclusions. Arrangements were being made to facilitate postal ballot for persons with 40% disability and 85 years of age. Persons with disabilities should possess Benchmark Disability Certificate issued by authorities, the CEO said.

Service voters will be provided ballots through Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS), the CEO said.

The Election Commission will allow alternate documents such as passport, driving licence, service identity card with photographs, passbook with photograph, PAN card, Smart Card, MNREGA Job Card, Health Insurance Smart Card, pension document with photograph, official identity card issued to MPs/MLAs and Aadhar Card for the purpose of identification at polling station. Instructions in this regard will be shared once issued by the Commission, Mr Jawahar said.

The CEO said the Commission has directed that henceforth the Photo Voter Slip issued by election machinery will not be accepted as a stand-alone identification document for voting. Therefore, the voter should necessarily produce either EPIC or any one of the permitted alternative documents along with the voter slip, he said.