ECI announces Schedule for Elections to Haryana & Maharashtra Assemblies, by-polls

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New Delhi : Election Commission of India (ECI) on September 21, 2019, announced the Schedule for General Election to the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra, 2019, as also the Schedule for bye-elections to fill casual vacancy in the Parliamentary Constituency & State Legislative Assemblies in various States/UTs. The Model Code of Conduct comes into effect immediately from the announcemnent of poll schedule.

The General Elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana & Maharashtra  will be held on October 21, 2019, while the Gazette Notification will be issued on September 27, 2019.The last date for filing nominations is October 4, 2019. The date of counting of votes is October 24, 2019.

The by-polls to 64 assembly seats and Samastipur Lok Sabha constituency spread across 18 states will be held on October 21, 2019,  and the counting of votes will be on October 24, the ECI announced on September 21. The notification for the Lok Sabha bypoll and 64 assembly by-elections will be issued on September 23. The nomination process will begin the same day.These assembly seats include 15 in Karnataka, 11 in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Bihar and Kearla, four seats each in Gujarat, Punjab,  & Assam. In Bihar, by-polls will be held to Kishanganj, Simri Bakhtiarpur, Daraunda, Nathnagar, and Belhar seats.

The by-poll to Samastipur (Bihar) Lok Sabha constituency was necessitated following the death of sitting LJP MP Ram Chandra Paswan  in July 2019.

The terms of the Legislative Assemblies of Haryana ( 90 seats) and Maharashtra (288 seats) are due to expire on November 2, 2019,  and November 11,  2019, respectively. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora is that the ECI is committed to hold free, fair and transparent elections to these two legislative assemblies before the cessation of their respective terms. Photo Electoral Rolls will be used during the General Election of Assemblies of both States, he said.

To facilitate the voters to know at which serial number of electoral roll of which particular polling station he/she is enrolled as a voter, the ECI has directed that official voter slip bearing the Photo of the elector (wherever present in the roll) will be distributed at least 5 days before the date of poll to all enrolled electors by the District Election Officer (DEO) and a very close and rigorous monitoring of the distribution process shall be done by the DEO and General Observer concerned.

The size, design and format of the Photo Voter Slip (PVS) has also been substantially improved to enhance its utility and effectiveness in voter awareness and guidance by increasing the size of the image, providing additional information along with polling station “Nazri Naksha” on the reverse of the slip and improvement in the quality of printing by generating pdf files through ERO Net. The number of polling stations in Haryana is 19,425 and 95,473 in Maharashtra.

The Commission has decided to use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) along with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at every polling station in the General Elections to State Legislative Assemblies of Haryana and Maharashtra to enhance the transparency and credibility of the election process as VVPAT allows the voter to verify his/her vote, Arora said. The Commission has already made arrangements to ensure availability of adequate number of EVMs and VVPATs for the smooth conduct of elections, he said.

All the instructions issued for General Elections to Legislative Assemblies of Haryana & Maharashtra shall also be applicable to the by-polls.

Voter Turnout App provides real-time voter turnout details of each Constituency including the number of men, women and third gender. The application can also be used by media houses to capture the live voter turnout data. The application is available on Google Play store, according to a PIB release.