10 polling stations near Indo-China border
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Oct 8: With female voters outnumbering male, over 89,000 people will exercise their franchise in October 22 elections of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh.
As per official figures, 89,776 electorate will exercise their franchise in 26 constituencies of LAHDC Leh on October 22 which included 44,750 male and 45025 females.
To ensure the smooth and hassle – free polling the authorities have established 294 polling booths in all 26 constituencies. The entire polling exercise besides the Returning Officer will be monitored by 12 Zonal Magistrates and 46 Sector Magistrates.
Among all the 26 constituencies, Lower Leh has the highest number of 11,281 voters followed by Phyang which has 9551 voters while the Sku Markha constituency has the lowest number of 719 electorates and Tangtse has 2037.
As per official figures in comparison to last LAHDC, Leh elections held in the year 2015 the female number of voters has surpassed the male members this time. In 5th LAHDC Leh elections in 2015 the total number of female voters was 40276 which has this time increased to 45025, while the number of male voters at previous elections was 40,858 which has now increased to 44750.
Likewise, there has been an increase in the number of voters in last five years by 8642. Last time there were total 81134 voters which have increased to 89776 now. The Lower Leh also has the highest number of 5725 female voters while Sku Markha constituency has lowest number of 364 female voters.
Meanwhile, there are 94 candidates in fray after the withdrawal of papers was made yesterday for all 26 constituencies in Leh. Out of 165 candidates who had filed their nomination papers in 26 constituencies of Leh, four nominations were rejected by the election authorities during scrutiny on October 5. Out of them, two nominations were rejected in Tegar constituency while one each nomination was rejected in Skur Buchana and Lower Leh constituerncies respectively.
The highest number of 16 nominations were received for Chuchot constituency which was followed by 11 in Turtuk while Panamik, Sakti and Khalsti each have received lowest number of 3 nomination papers.
Though there are 19 candidates of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and 23 Independents in fray but the main contest will be between BJP and Congress in all 26 constituencies.
As per official figures, 10 polling stations in Chuchul and Nyoma constituencies are nearer to Line of Actual Control. The Chushul is near Black Top Mountain where the border skirmishes between India and China were witnessed recently. Both these constituencies have 2150 and 2704 voters respectively.
A polling booth for four voters, two male and two female has been established at Wazi in Panamik Constituency of Leh. It is the polling booth with lowest number of voters which is followed by polling booth of 38-Gaik in 9-Kyungyam constituency with eight voters, three female and five male.
The 91-Sheynam polling booth in 17-Lower Leh has the highest number of 1358 voters with 645 male and 713 female electorates. This is followed by 87-Skara also in Lower Leh with 1155 voters with 592 male and 563 females.
Meanwhile, the election authorities have issued the broad guidelines for the candidates to be observed during campaigning for 6th LAHDC Leh.
According to these guidelines, maximum three persons will be allowed for door to door campaigns, besides not more than nine vehicles per candidate will be allowed for roadshow and only three vehicles will move at a time with interval of 15 minutes.
The vehicles accompanying the candidate in campaigning can only carry 50 percent passengers of the total carrying capacity. The candidates have also been asked to follow all the guidelines issued by MHA, UT administration and DDM from time to time and the COVID guidelines and SOPs issued by the Election Authority/DM/DC shall also be followed in letter and spirit.
Moreover, every person has to wear face mask during election related activities, Thermal scanning of all persons will be carried out on their entry to any hall, room premises used for election purposes, sanitizer, soap and water will be made available for them, social distancing has to be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the UT Government and Ministry of Home Affairs.
To ensure compliance of COVID 19 guidelines the election authorities have decided to mobilize adequate number of vehicles for movement of polling and security personnel.
This time the Government has decided to designate Nodal Health Officer for the constituencies to oversee COVID-19 related arrangements and preventive measures during entire electoral process. Moreover, gloves will be made available to each official handling ballot boxes.
The Strong Rooms will be sanitized, social distancing and other safety norms have to be followed for each activity. During counting adequate number of tables will be put in counting hall, carrying cases of ballot boxes will be sanitized before placing over counting tables and counting centers will be disinfected before, during and after the counting.
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