Staff Reporter

Photo: C. Suresh Kumar

GETTING IT RIGHT: Polling officers taking charge of the voting machines and other polling material in Kollam on Wednesday. —

KOLLAM: The stage is set at 1,703 polling stations in the district to receive 18.12 lakh voters for the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha on Thursday.

As many as 21,719 voters will be exercising their franchise for the first time. The polling stations include four auxiliary stations.

Nearly 8,500 polling officers will man these polling stations. Each polling station will have a presiding officer and three polling officers. Electronic voting machines were taken charge of by the respective polling officers and taken to the polling stations by Wednesday evening. 1,868 voting machines have been set up for the purpose.

Polling material

Fifty-eight types of polling material required for voting have also been distributed to the polling officers. These include pen, pencil, voters’ list, pins, matchbox and waste paper basket.

One of the highlights of the voting process in the district is that there will be no women polling officers. They have been exempted under a Central Election Commission directive which states that if sufficient men are available to man the polling stations, women should be exempted. But the Deputy Collector (Elections) is a woman - K.S. Padmakumari.

District Election Officer A. Shajahan said polling would be on from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. All arrangements had been made for the smooth conduct of polling.

Voter break-up

There are 85,08,46 male voters and 95,46,74 female voters in the district. It has 7,076 service voters.

Of the 11 Assembly segments in the district, seven fall under the Kollam Lok Sabha constituency. These are Chavara, Kollam, Kundara, Chadayamangalam, Punalur, Eravipuram and Chathannur.

Three segments come under the Mavelikara Lok Sabha constituency. These are Kunnathur, Kottarakara and Pathanapuram. The Karunagapally segment comes under the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency.