Joint CEO of Manipur Ramananda Nongmeikapam on Saturday appealed to electorals in the state to cast their votes by visiting their respective polling stations and use the postal ballot option as last resort.
Ramananda was addressing a press briefing on Saturday at the Manipur CEO office in Imphal West.
According to a notification issued by the CEO, it stated that the CEO will be holding a press conference on every Thursday and the additional CEO or the joint CEO will hold a press briefing on every Monday and Saturday to disseminate vital information relating to the preparation and arrangement made in connection with the ensuing state Assembly election.
Ramananda said the office of the CEO, Manipur has so far issued 33,376 forms for postal ballots and out of which only 929 filled-up forms have been submitted to the office.
The persons eligible for postal ballots are persons with disabilities, voters above 80 years, persons who are suspected or positive for Covid-19 and those undergoing quarantine and employees working in 11 essential services approved by the ECI, he added.
He also informed that the ECI on Friday had also given approval for postal ballots for 2,177 SoO group cadres of 14 designated camps, whose names have been enrolled in the electoral roll.
The cadres will be given the opportunity after their identity is well established and the whole ballot voting process will be videograph by maintaining the secrecy of voting, he added.
Ramananda said, to ensure that the voters are fully aware about any criminal antecedents of the candidates, those candidates having any criminal antecedents should publish the details in newspaper and TV channel on three occasions.
Moreover, political parties should also publish the criminal antecedents of their candidates if any and the reason for why they cannot select candidates having no criminal antecedents, he added.
