For the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, 4.92 crore people will be eligible to vote for the 26 seats in Gujarat, a senior Election Commission official said. There will be 11.32 lakh first-time eligible voters while the above-100 demographic numbers 10,322.
Elections for the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies and bypolls to five Assembly seats Gujarat will be held in a single phase on May 7. For this, the nomination process will begin on April 12, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P. Bharathi had said on Saturday, March 16.
Out of the total 4,94,49,469 voters registered as per the final electoral roll published on January 5, 2024, around 2.54 crore are men, 2.39 crore are women and 1,503 are transgender, Bharathi revealed. The voters in the state have increased by 43,23,789 compared to the 2019 elections since the general elections in 2019.
Bharathi said 87,042 ballot units (BUs), 71,682 control units (CUs) of EVMs and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines will be used across 29,568 polling stations in the state. Additionally, the process to provide voter cards to over 16.5 lakh people who applied for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls after the third week of September, 2023, is being done rapidly, she added.
Talking about the facilities that will be provided at the polling stations, the CEO said these booths will have facilities for parking and seating. Moreover, all the polling stations will have a ‘model polling station,’ decorated with selfie booths.
Bharathi said 1,274 polling booths or seven booths per 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat, will be ‘sakhi matdan mathak’ and will be managed wholly by women officials.
One polling booth in each Assembly seat will be managed by differently-abled individuals, while one will be managed by a young person in each district, Bharathi added.
Live webcasting will take place across the state in around 25,000 polling stations on the day of the election, she added. Voters aged 85 or older and electors with over 40% disability will be allowed to cast their vote from home.
Over 1.2 lakh police personnel will be posted in the state during the elections. The Election Commission will also deploy 4.5 lakh personnel, including state and central government employees, the CEO added.
The commission has also implemented measures to make sure that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is implemented seamlessly. “An arrangement has been made to take fast action to quickly address complaints regarding serious violations of the MCC and breaches of law and order, and daily reports will be submitted to the Election Commission of India,” said Bharathi, as reported by PTI.
