In Punjab’s electoral fray there are two transgenders, 93 women and 1,209 male candidates for the 117 Assembly constituencies. The Assembly election is slated for February 20.
Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Karuna Raju on Thursday said that among all the candidates, nine candidates are 25 years old and six are above 80. A 94-year-old candidate contesting from Lambi in Muktsar Sahib is the oldest one. Former Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patron Parkash Singh Badal is in the fray from Lambi seat.
The CEO said that there are a total of 21,499,804 registered voters in the State, of which 11,298,081 are male, 10,200,996 female, 727 third gender, 1,58,341 PWD voters, 1,09,624 service voters, 1,608 NRI voters and 509,205 voters are above the age of 80.
Mr. Raju said that there are 24,740 polling stations in 14,684 polling locations across the State, of which 2013 are identified as critical. He added that all polling booths will be covered under webcasting on the polling day. He said that a minimum half section of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and remaining force from Punjab Police will be deployed at critical polling locations as per norms prescribed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Mr. Raju said that to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections, as many as 972 flying squad teams (FSTs), 857 static surveillance teams (SSTs), 479 video surveillance teams (VSTs), 159 video viewing team (VVTs) and 119 accounting teams have been deployed across the State and are working round the clock.
