Code of conduct comes into effect after EC notification

Chandigarh: All necessary arrangements have been made to hold the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha Elections in a free, fair and transparent manner, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Haryana, Anurag Agarwal. Addressing a press conference, Mr Agarwal on Saturday said that with the announcement of election programme by Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday, Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has come into effect.

He said that after the second revision of electoral list on August 27, 2019, the final voter list has been published as per which 1.83 crore voters, including 1.07 lakh service voters would exercise their right to franchise. He said that as the process for updating the electoral roll is in progress, the number of voters is expected increase.

Total of 19,442 voting centres have been established in the state, including 5,511 in urban areas and 13,931 in rural areas. “There are 10,288 polling locations in the state,” he said, adding that a request has been made to the ECI to convert polling stations with more than 1,500 voters into auxiliary polling stations. The number of such polling stations in the state is 136.

Mr Agarwal said that there are 26,329 control units and 40,615 ballot units. Besides, an arrangement of 27,996 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines has been made.

While giving details about the arrangement made in the state for the conduct of the elections, he said that on the direction of ECI, Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) have been appointed in all 90 assembly segments. In all, 90 ROs and 180 AROs have been appointed in the State.