Over 14.7 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise on Saturday. There are a total of 13,751 polling booths across 2,689 locations in the national capital.
Delhi chief electoral officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh said, “Elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure smooth polling on Saturday. It will be a tech-driven election that will improve the voting experience for people. Over one lakh polling officers will be conducting the exercise across Delhi. Security has been tightened in all critical or sensitive areas, including Shaheen Bagh.”
He added that massive voter awareness campaigns have been carried out across Delhi and in areas with low turnout areas. Besides, 38,410 critical booths have been identified at 516 locations.
“There will be 14,484 ballot units or electronic voting machines (EVMs) attached to 13,571 control units and voter-verifiable paper audit trails (VVPATs). Besides, 4,416 ballot units, 4,145 control units and 5,617 VVPATs have been kept in reserve on stand-by,” said a senior officer.
Delhi on Saturday will be the first state in the country to experiment with a number of voter-friendly measures like postal ballots for people above the age of 80 and those with severe disabilities, quick-response (QR) code-enabled voter slips in 11 assembly constituencies.
The 11 constituencies with QR code voter slips include Sultanpur Majra, Seelampur, Ballimaran, Bijwasan, Trilokpuri, Shakur Basti, New Delhi, Rohtas Nagar, Chhatarpur, Rajouri Garden and Jangpura.
“Out of 3400 voters who had opted for postal ballots, 2,917 have cast their vote through the facility,” the officer said.
Besides, 600 people, above the age of 80 years and the specially abled, have requested for pick and drop facility. E-rickshaws and cars will be used for picking up voters and dropping them back home,” the officer said.
Besides this, all 70 assembly constituencies in Delhi will have a model ‘pink’ polling station, managed exclusively by women. The concept of such booths, where the polling party is all women, was launched in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when 14 such booths were set up across districts.
Also, for the first time, polling officials will be staying overnight at the booths before the day of voting. “This has been the norm across other states. We have asked the civic bodies to make arrangements for the stay including quilts, mattresses, hot water and other necessities. It will help in setting up the polling station early and avoid having any glitches in preparation,” he said.
However, some complaints about arrangements have already been received at the electoral office, including transporting essentials in garbage lifting vehicles.
Officials in three municipal corporations could not be reached for comments.
Prasanta Patnaik