Elaborate Arrangements Made for Smooth Conduct of First Phase Polls in Odisha

Bhubaneswar:11/5/24: Elaborate arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the first phase of simultaneous elections in Odisha, said State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal here on Saturday.

Voting will be held in Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur, and Berhampur Lok Sabha seats along with 28 Assembly segments coming under it on May 13. Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm on that day.

Addressing a press conference, the CEO expressed his confidence that polling will be conducted peacefully and smoothly.

“We have made all arrangements to provide a happy experience to the voters”, Dhal said.

The CEO said that the number of female voters is more than male voters. The voters’ list has a good representation of youth, PWDs, elderly citizens, he added.

In the first phase, 62, 87, 222 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. There are 30, 97,527 male voters and 31,89,060 female voters. There are 635 third-gender voters, the CEO said.

Among the voters, there are 1,75,134 first-time voters aged 18-19 and 14,68,504 young voters aged 20-29. A total of 7,303 polling booths have been established for the first phase of the election. Out of this, 715 booths are completely manned for women. As many as 1276 ideal booths have been set up. The webcasting facilities have been arranged for 60 booths.

A total of 52,500 polling staff have been employed. A total of 104 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, 60 companies of armed police, 31 companies of CRPF, and 6 companies of CISF will be deployed.

The CEO appealed to all voters of the four parliamentary constituencies to come out in large numbers on 13th May and exercise their democratic right, the right to vote.