Nagaland chief electoral officer V Shashank Shekhar on January 19 said the state machinery is fully prepared and is gearing up to conduct a free and fair election, which was announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), to be held on February 27.
Addressing a press conference in view of the forthcoming assembly election to the Nagaland legislative assembly in Kohima on January 19, the CEO informed that as per the latest electoral rolls, Nagaland has a total of 13,17,632 electorates, which includes 7,983 service voters, 6970 PwD electors and 36,403 senior citizen (80+) electors.
The CEO also said that in order to cast votes one could produce their voter EPIC or any of the following identification documents approved by the ECI such as Aadhar card, MNREGA job card, passbooks with photograph issued by bank/post office, health insurance smart card issued under the scheme of Union ministry of labour, driving license, PAN card, smart card issued by RGI under NPR, Indian Passport, pension documents with photograph, service identity cards with photograph issued to employees by central/state government/PSUs/ public limited companies and officials identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs and unique disability ID (UDID) card.
Shekhar then informed that Nagaland has a total number of 2315 polling stations, which is an increase of 5.51% from 2018.
In the forthcoming assembly election, 196 will be women-managed polling stations while 10 will be PwD-managed polling stations.
The ECI has made a cVIGIL app to give an application for MCC violation cases by citizens. cVIGIL provides time-stamped evidentiary proof of MCC/ expenditure violation by empowering every citizen to click a photo or video using his or her smartphone. This application is based on GIS technology and the unique feature of auto location provides fairly correct information which can be relied upon by flying squads to navigate to the right spot of incidence and take prompt action.
The ECI has directed that the use of public address system or loudspeakers or any sound amplifier, whether fitted on vehicles of any kind whatsoever or in static position used for public meetings for electioneering purposes, during the entire election period starting from the date of announcement and ending with the date of declaration of results, shall not be permitted at night between 10 pm to 6 am.
