The Election Commission of India (ECI) will make use of a mobile app to check impersonation of Absentee, Shifted, and Dead (ASD) voters during the upcoming polls.
The agency informed the Kerala High Court about the preparations it had undertaken for the conduct of polls in response to a petition filed by Varkala Kahar, chief election agent of Adoor Prakash, the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate of the Attingal constituency.
Mr. Kahar had approached the court by stating that a large number of double entries had found place in the electoral roll.
To prevent malpractices
The ECI stated before the court that it instructed all the District Election Officers and Returning Officers to make use of the app for preventing malpractices. As many as 3,431 cases of double entries that were identified in the list of 13,96,805 electors in the constituency were removed from the list.
The final voters list was provided to the respective presiding officers. Webcasting of polls will be held in 1,423 polling booths in the constituency. Political parties can appoint one polling agent and two relief agents in each polling station to assist the presiding officer detect and prevent voter impersonation, the ECI informed the court.
In another petition filed by the chief election agent of Shafi Parambil, the UDF candidate in the Vadakara Constituency, seeking to issue orders for deploying Central forces at all polling booths within the constituency to ensure a free and fair election, the ECI informed the court that it has made arrangements for 100% webcasting in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur, and Thiruvananthapuram districts.
Seven companies of Central forces would be deployed in 264 sensitive polling booths in Vadakara. Steps for conducting the election in a free and fair manner have been undertaken in all the constituencies, including Vadakara, the agency informed the court.
