All women booth in all 234 Assembly constituencies

Chennai: In a first of its kind initiative, Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni has requested recognised political parties and the district collectors to identify and convert a polling booth in all the 234 Assembly constituencies into an all women polling station.

Under the concept,  the women polling booth will have women police personnel, women party polling agents and a woman presiding officer.

This novel initiative is aimed at improving women participation in the democratic process, Lakhoni told DC. Pointing out that a record 6.84 lakh voters names has been deleted, he said all steps are underway to ensure a free and fair poll. To make elections a hit, college and school students will also be roped in as ambassadors besides celebrities, he said.

To encourage voters, public (election) department had made arrangements to ease the queue. Now a voter can send an SMS to Election Commission (EC) to know their queue position and can plan their voting time. Voters should send SMS Q space – EPIC to 1950 and the queue position in the voters respective polling booth will be sent, he said.

When asked about the DMK’s petition requesting not to promulgate Cr.P.C 144 during the time of elections, he said the memorandum had been forwarded to EC.

Meanwhile, DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi in a petition on Wednesday urged EC to  prevent “vote for cash” in Tamil Nadu, through deployment of fully empowered income tax flying squads coordinating closely with Enforcement Directorate officials.

In a memorandum, the DMK leader said that despite EC’s well-intended direction and its formation of flying squad, there had been no visible compliance as most members in the squad were state government employees.