Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer Abhijit Sinha on Tuesday said the election notification for the February 27 state Assembly election will be issued on January 31 after which nominations can be filed in returning officers (ROs) offices from 11 am to 3 pm till February 7. Form 1 will be issued for filing of nomination, he said.
Briefing media persons on the upcoming Assembly election at his office in Kohima, the CEO stated that this time the ROs are either ADCs or SDOs while informing that there are seven ROs based in DCs offices due to inadequate infrastructure.
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He said there are 12 election districts, including Pughoboto, and that the counting of votes will be done in those districts in the counting complexes.
Informing that the CAPF companies have started arriving, Sinha said about 280 companies of CRPF are expected to arrive for election duty.
He further said there are 2194 polling stations in the state while two auxiliary polling stations have come up because of the presence of more than 1400 voters.
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Also, stating that training for polling personnel has already commenced, the CEO informed that all polling personnel are given at least three rounds of training.
Display of VVPATs in all the villages has been carried out since they will be used in all the places from this general election onwards, he said.
Sinha further said postal ballots for service voters called ETPBS system will be used and postal ballot papers will be sent to them through emails which will return through post.
Informing that there are 55 ROs for the 60 Assembly constituencies, the CEO said AROs can do all the duties of ROs except scrutiny which can be carried out only in special unavoidable circumstances by the AROs.
Sinha also informed that there are 555 polling stations where live webcasting will be carried out, and in those polling stations where internet connectivity is poor fixed cameras will be installed in order to check electoral malpractices. Fifty-five election observers will be in the state for the elections.
Answering queries, the CEO said nominations cannot be filed outside the state and if candidates are not allowed to file nominations, he/she should approach ROs, DEOs and SPs.
“We are all prepared for the polls. I appeal to everyone not to vitiate this election process,” the CEO said.
Earlier in the day, the CEO held a meeting with the political parties in Kohima. He briefed the party representatives on filing of nomination of the candidates. He requested the political parties to go through the website where all the necessary information is uploaded.