With barely 10 days to go for the much awaited 12th Manipur Assembly Election 2022 scheduled in two phases on February 28 and March 5, Manipur is gearing up with several new arrangements in place. Hectic preparation by all officials concerned and political activities by all political parties, leaders, workers and supporters are underway. While heavy political activities are causing traffic inconveniences for the common people, increasing pre-poll violence and threats are also being reported in the state. Amid the hectic and tension-filled poll situation, is the state better prepared to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections across the state than in the last general elections, 2017?
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Addressing the media on Thursday at the state Chief Election Office in Imphal, CEO Rajesh Agrawal said: In the first phase of the assembly elections, a total of 173 candidates, including 15 women candidates are contesting. In the second phase, a total of 92 candidates, including two women candidates, are contesting. He also said that a total of 56 candidates out of the 265 candidates have criminal antecedents.
As a part of the law and order and security measures taken up ahead of polls, the total seizure has crossed Rs 100 crore and now stands at Rs 102 crore, which includes Rs 84.7 crore of drugs or poppy and Rs 1.475 crore of Cash (by Income Tax). A total of 286 nakas are operational, and 80.53 per cent of arms (18039) are deposited as against 59.76 per cent in 2017 Assembly Elections. IMFL/DIC liquor seizures are rising. SST, Police Department, Excise Department and State Tax Department are on high alert, Agrawal said.
A total of 328 FIRs have been registered since August 1, 2022, including 60 cases of NDPS. And the total seizure crossed Rs 100-crore mark, arms deposition at 80.52 per cent, he added.
The CEO also said that from the date of announcement of the election on January 8, 2022, a total of 45 FIRs were registered across the state. Adequate numbers of Central Paramilitary Forces/CAPF will be deployed in the 12th General Elections to the Legislative Assembly. CAPF are already deployed and are being effectively used in Area domination and in vulnerable pockets or hamlets, as a step towards confidence building amongst the electorates.
A total of 600 all-women polling stations will be established in the state while one out of every five polling stations will be manned by women polling personnel for the first time, thus breaching the 20 per cent mark across the states of India. It is all for encouraging women and empowering women, he said.
A net of 13,203 voters have been added to the electoral rolls during the continuous updating and the total electors on the final electoral roll for ensuing elections now stands at 20,48,169, Agrawal said.
Traccar App
Two apps have been launched namely E-Traccar and E-atlas App. The traccar application will be used to systematically track the movement of each identified election official on the day of election. A companion traccar app will be installed on each official with required permissions and must be put on all the time to be able to track their locations. E-atlas will be used for mapping information of status of safe arrival of polling officers, voters at queue reporting service, LIVE incident reporting service (which will be flagged instantaneously to the control room), Live EVM/VVPAT malfunction reporting service, Live Poll Close monitoring service. The sector teams will be tracked through these APPs and communication in case of any emergency or functional issues of EVMs will be flagged and reported through these APPS to the sector Teams. These APPs are innovation of Manipur and are in place only in the state, he informed.
Postal ballot
Rajesh said that ETPBS for service voters have been dispatched electronically by all ROs. Service voters will mark and send the postal ballots to ROs by post. Only those postal ballots received before 8:00 AM of March 10 will be taken up for counting, the CEO said.
A total of 13,274 service voters for Phase-1 and 8,670 voters in phase-2 can now send postal ballots. A total of 8,711 Absentee voters will be exercising their franchise through postal ballot, which includes 1,261 Persons with Disabilities, 7,434 senior citizens and 16 persons belonging to the essential services. Polling Teams have started visiting the houses of absentee voters from February 16 onwards and facilitated voting through postal ballots. Micro observers are being deployed and videography will be done. Each absentee voter is informed in advance. All candidates and agents are also informed in advance, he said.
COVID Rules for Polls
The CEO also said that maintaining the COVID appropriate behavior, the commission decided 50 per cent of the capacity of designated open ground or as fixed by DEOs as per requirement of social distancing norms, whichever is less, subject to compliance of all conditions of SDMA. Pad-yatras are allowed with maximum of 100 persons and with written permission of the DEO. All requisite permission should be obtained from SUVIDHA portal. So far 69.44 per cent and 54.41 per cent of the Electors are vaccinated with single dose and second dose respectively.
Preacaution dose for election machinery
All the election machinery who have completed 90 days from the date of second dose is being administered precautionary doses.
Training of polling personnel
Around 21,817 polling personnel trained are completely vaccinated. A total of 5500 precautionary doses were administered to polling parties. Around 10000Police personnel are vaccinated with precautionary doses. 99% and 86% of police personnel are given first dose and second doses respectively.
Other Arrangements
Meticulous planning is in place to ensure network connectivity, disruption-free power during the poll days. Security management plan and communication plan are being finalized for ensuing general elections to the 12th Legislative Assembly. Shadow area Action Plan is in place for 62 polling stations across State. Satellite phones, VHFs and booster and repeater stations will be established to fill the communication gaps, he added.
