Special drive for Telangana voters' enrolment

A special drive for voters' enrolment is being held at all the designated polling stations in Telangana by the Election Commission (EC).

The special campaign with booth level officers at polling stations, began on Saturday and continued till Sunday for voters' enrolment.

Similarly, eligible voters seeking to make corrections in entries or those who have shifted to another polling areas can apply for making required changes through forms or by availing online services, officials said.

Awareness rallies were organised in different parts of the city and the state for voters to enroll, they said.

A bike rally on voter awareness and enrolment "Be bold, come out and vote" was organised by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

The EC is holding polling-booth-wise revision and verification of electoral rolls in 32,574 polling stations and booth level officers were made available for addressing issues related to the voters' list.

Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar on Friday said that preparations for Assembly polls in the state were underway, and EVMs and VVPAT machines had started to arrive.

He had said over 52,000 ballot units, around 41,000 central units and 44,000 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were expected to reach various districts before September 20.

The CEO said booth level officials would be available at all polling stations to take up issues related to the voters' list.

A preliminary-level inspection of EVMs will be conducted to detect manufacturing defects in the presence of political parties to remove doubts if any, he had said, adding that VVPATS will be used for the first time in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Earlier, the EC had stopped all activities relating to special summary revision of photo electoral rolls with reference to January 1, 2019 and said the final electoral rolls' list will be published on October 8.

The decision for a revised schedule was taken in the wake of dissolution of the Telangana Assembly on September 6, officials had said.

As per the revised schedule, the integrated draft electoral roll was published on September 10.

The period for filing claims and objections is from Monday to September 25 while the disposal of claims and objections is by October 4.

The updating database and printing of supplement will be completed before October 7 and the final publication of electoral roll will be on October 8, it said.