Election Commision gears up for ‘inclusive’ Assembly polls

The Election Commission (EC) was gearing up for the forthcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. After the initiative by Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni through tweets and online means to ensure cent per cent voting, preparations were now being made to ensure cent per cent postal ballots. At a recent meeting with officials from eight districts, the CEO discussed the arrangements made for postal ballots.

Police officials, Collectors and Revenue officials from Chennai, Vellore, Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri and Cuddalore districts participated in the meeting held here on Thursday.

In 66,000 polling booths, preparations were being made to ensure that booths convenient for differently-abled individuals were set up. This year, there will be new software at counting centres to count the votes. Collectors and police officials were being trained for election-related work. The training programme is being held in four divisions.

On Thursday, a set of personnel were trained at Anna Institute of Management in the city. Earlier, people were trained at Madurai and Coimbatore. The training included orientation programme for the officers on being able to check the online voters list. Asked about the Opposition’s charges of bogus voters being included in the voter’s list, Lakhoni said, “new voters have been registered through online procedure. It is not possible for the same person to upload their picture twice in two different profiles. Provision has also been made for online corrections.”