Guj to have elections in December

CEC-led delegation reviews poll preparation

The Election Commission, which is yet to finalise the dates for forthcoming Assembly polls in Gujarat, on Tuesday said that the Assembly polls in the state would be held in coming December.

“I cannot confirm the dates yet but the new government needs to be in place by January 22 so elections need to be held in December,” A K Joti, chief election commissioner told mediapersons on the sidelines of his press conference in Ahmedabad.

The CEC was leading a team of EC officials on a two-day visit to Gujarat to review preparedness ahead of Assembly elections.

Speaking to mediapersons, Joti said that EVM VVPATs would also be used across all the 50,128 polling stations at 28639 polling locations in the state for 182 Assembly constituencies. VVPAT enables a voter to see the name of the candidate and the symbol of the candidate on paper to whom he has cast his or her vote to.

"Political parties have welcomed the introduction of VVPAT and have requested that after introduction of VVPATs, the time frame of voting should be rationalised to achieve maximum voting," he said.

Talking about the total electorate in the state, EC said that Gujarat has a total of 43.3 million registered voters as on September 25, 2017, with 22.5 million (51.96 per cent) males and 20.7 million (47.80 per cent) females.

During the visit, the commission met representatives of various political parties, administrative and police officials as well as enforcement agencies.

The EC also said that their main aim is to ensure free and fair poll with adequate security. He also announced setting up of at least one polling booth across all 182 Assembly constituencies that would be manned completely by women, be it polling official or security personnel.