Voters in five constituencies in Assam and one in Tripura will on Monday kick off the 2014 general elections. The elections to the 16{+t}{+h} Lok Sabha will be spread over nine days and end on May 12. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 16 and the Election Commission has said the results will be known the same day.
According to the Election Commission, the total electorate is about 814.5 million against 713 million during the 2009 elections. There has been a remarkable increase in the enrolment of voters in the 18-19 years age-group. This group now comprises 23 million voters or 2.88 per cent of the total electorate, compared with 0.75 per cent in 2009.
There will be a nearly 12 per cent increase in the number of polling stations — to about 9.30 lakh from 8.30 lakh in 2009.
The Election Commission has said there will be nearly 17.20 lakh control units and 18.78 lakh ballot units, making up the electronic voting machines. For the first time, voters will have the ‘None of the Above’ option in the electronic voting machines.
Along with elections to the 543 Lok Sabha seats, elections to the Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh (294 seats), Odisha (147), Sikkim (32) and Arunachal Pradesh (60) will also be held.
In Assam, security measures have been tightened for the polls with additional companies of security forces, including CRPF, deployed in the five constituencies and two helicopters kept on standby, official sources said.
For the first time in the North-East and the third time in the country after Kashmir and Bihar, all polling booths in the State have been declared smoking-free.