Finally the D-day for political parties is here. Voting for the corporation polls is all set to begin at 7 am on Friday and go on till 5 pm, across 688 booths in the city. 

District administration has made neccessary arrangements for the voting process to be carried out smoothly in all the 65 wards.

Addressing the media persons here on Thursday, Commissioner of Police Bhaskar Rao said sensitive and hyper sensitive voting booths have been identified. 

Officers have been trained for the task. Violations and flouting of norms will be taken seriously, he said.

The police have warned against ferrying people in private vehicles to the polling booth. General public and party activists are requested to walk up to the booth on Friday and co-operate with the police.

Holiday

Public holiday has been declared on the day of voting to help people exercise their franchise.  Emergency services will function as usual. ID cards distributed to the voters by the political parties need to be devoid of any indicative symbols of the party.

The makeshift tents erected by the political parties near the booth should not have pictures of the candidate, flags or symbols.

Parties should use vehicles approved by the Election Commission. Criminal cases will be booked against people attempting to cast proxy votes, he added.

Materials have been seized in many wards when candidates tried wooing voters by giving them sarees, liquor etc.

Secret video footage of such distribution in progress has been used as tangible evidence to book cases against distributors, candidate, party district president and recepient.  

City has...

*337 candidates

*712450 voters - 355797 male, 356653 female

*688 booths including 214 sensitive and 338 hyper sensitive ones

*3028 booth officers on job

*13 route officers and 45 route guides will be ferried across the city in 45 buses to supervise the polls

*48 buses, 120 government jeeps and 35 private matadors have been pressed into service.

No rejoicing

With Section 144 coming into force on midnight of Sep 29 and staying  through midnight of Oct 1. With this, all grand hopes of winners and supporters rejoicing the victory has come crashing down.

Counting of votes

There is a total ban on use of mobile at counting centres, except for the employees involved in the counting process. The process to count votes will begin at 8 am on Sep 30.

The authorities are confident of announcing the results for all 65 wards by 3 pm, same day. Here are the details of ward numbers and their respective counting centres.

CPC Polytechnic : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 36,

JSS College, Ooty Road: 18, 21, 22, 23, 34, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40

Maharani Arts and Commerce College : 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65