Model Code of Conduct To Be In Force Till June 4, Despite Polling Concluding On April 19th For TN and Puducherry
Though polling for all the 39 constituencies in the Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry will be over on April 19, the Model Code of Conduct would continue to be in place till the results for all the constituencies in the country are announced on June 4, State Chief Electoral Officer Sathyabrata Sahoo said on Monday.
Briefing media persons on the election scene, he said voter slip distribution has already begun and 33.47 per cent of the electorate had received the slips. Explaining the facilities made available to voters to make the polling process easy, he said the search for names in the list has been simplified by listing them in the alphabetical order.
To a question on the confiscation of cash to the tune of Rs 4 crore from a train to Tirunelveli, at Tambaram railway station on Saturday, by the flying squad, Sahoo said that all cases relating to seizures over Rs one crore were handed over to the Income Tax department.
So far the total seizure of cash, liquor and other articles reportedly meant for distribution to voters was valued at Rs 208.41 crore, including Rs 88.12 crore cash and Rs 4.53 crore worth liquor.
On the conduct of the elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made all preparations and the officials involved in the exercise have been given two sets of training. One more set of training would be given to them on the eve of polling.
Of the total number of 6,23,33,925 registered voters - 3,17,19,665 women, 3,06,05,794 men and 8,467 transgender persons – 5537 of them were above 100 years, he said. Among the first time voters, 10,92,420 are in the age group of 18 to 19 and among the 1,10,17,679 voters aged 20 to 29 some of them could be first time voters as the last Assembly election was held in 2021.
He hoped that voter turnout would be more than the last elections as the ECI had launched a campaign to create awareness among the people on the need to exercise their franchise with the aim of achieving 100 per cent polling.
The Villupuram district collector had announced the vacancy in the Vikravandi Assembly constituency following the death of sitting MLA, N Pugezhenthi a couple of days back and the same had been conveyed to the ECI, Sahoo said.
