EC goes hi-tech to keep polls fair

As the campaigning for the first phase of the parliamentary elections in Karnataka ended at 5 pm on Tuesday, a two lakh strong election machinery swung into action to put in place a proper mechanism to ensure free and fair conduct of polls in the 17 parliamentary constituencies that are going to the polls on Thursday.

The election commission published the final electoral rolls on the basis of which the polling is going to be conducted. According to the final voters’ list, the state has 4,17,54,031 voters, of whom 2,12,90,0520 are men and 2,04,63,511 women.

Bangalore North with 2,14,3605 voters is the largest electorate in the state, followed by Bangalore South with 2,03,5149 voters and Bangalore Rural with 1,90,4623 voters. Chikkodi with 1,27,8832 voters has the smallest electorate. For the first-time ever, the election commission has forged an extensive communication network to cover all the 47,578 polling stations in Karnataka.

The network links all poling stations by either landline or mobile telephone links and ensures that news about even the most minute of the development reaches the EC within a fraction of a second, joint election commissioner BV Kulkarni told mediapersons.
The state has been divided into 35 electoral districts.

Every booth will have an officer who will be aware of the local situation and decide on the genuineness of the voters. The EC has, in the meanwhile, permitted a candidate to use only 10 vehicles in his constituency on the day of voting. Kulkarni also said that the EC has mobilised the requisite number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from various states. About 2,500 EVMs have been mobilized from Orissa, 3,000 from Andhra Pradesh, 4000 from Tamil Nadu and 1,500 from Kerala. They now have additional EVMs to tackle any emergency.