Khammam MLC candidates to use assistants’ clause

Khammam: Candidates contesting the election to the Khammam MLC Local Bodies Constituency are using a clause in the election rules whereby assistants may be provided to voters, who are illiterate or handicapped, for help in casting their votes. The Election Commission will allow the assistant, if the voter applied for one, to help cast his or her vote, and the assistant could be of their choice.

Officials are surprised at the number of applications from voters who want assistants: 111 persons have applied for assistants when they cast their vote on December 27. Returning officer K. Babu Rao said that the minimum age of the assistant should be 18 years and he can assist the voter who chose him.

Candidates, who got the promise from voters who were keen to vote for them, plan to send their assistants to polling booths to make sure that they got these votes without fail. Many candidates want the assistants to spell out the voter’s health problem. Election officials will then scrutinise these applications and then permit the assistants. M. Santha-mma, an MPTC, asked for an assistant as she was ailing, M Sankar, a political activist, said. “Candidates wanted to have assistants for voters whose credibility is in doubt.”

On the other hand, the election observer R.K. Srivastava asked the polling staff to allow the voters who showed identity cards. He visited polling station in Bhadrachalam on Friday and gave some suggestions to the polling officials. He observed the mock poll and directed them to install web-casting in a systematic manner.

Cellphones should not allowed in to the 100 metre radius of polling station and the agents of the candidates should sit to their allocated chairs and do not allow to move to the other places. Section 144 will be imposed on the polling day at polling booths.

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