Bureau Report
Port Blair, Apr 09: After a politically intense campaign, Andaman and Nicobar Islands are all set to vote for electing its next member to Lok Sabha tomorrow, where the principal fight is between Congress and BJP.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference at Port Blair today the CEO, Mrs. Rina Ray today said that 386 Polling Stations, with a total voting population of 2,69,360 would go to the polls tomorrow. This is an increase of 4,324 from the General Elections 2009. There are also 39 more Polling Stations this year compared to GE 2009.
She said that as per the Census data the population aged 18 and above is 70.40% and the number of person enrolled in the Electoral Roll is 71%. Therefore the entire eligible population has been covered. 100% of all electors have been issued an EPIC Card of which 99.3% have got the photo EPIC card.
The CEO expressed the hope that the number of people voting in these Islands would increase substantially as around one-third of the people did not vote in the last elections. Towards this end, extensive efforts and wide spread initiatives were taken to enroll the entire eligible population. In addition to the summary revision carried out last year, the Election Commission of India also agreed to the request made by political parties in these Islands to extend the date for receipt of claims and objections by a further 15 days, therefore giving more opportunity to the people to enroll. The BLOs carried out extensive visits of their areas and camps were held at colleges and various places throughout the islands. A Special Camp was also held on 9th March 2014 at all Polling Stations and various initiatives on voters awareness such as street plays were conducted. The CEO met with political parties in Port Blair, Mayabunder and Car Nicobar and DEOs also had regular interactions. All political parties were repeatedly requested to encourage people to enroll and to bring to the notice of the authorities whenever they noticed that any names were missing. Printed copies of the electoral roll and CDs were given to all recognized political parties. In addition to this all efforts have been made to ensure that all Government servants on duty vote for which clear directions were issued to all HODs. The complete electoral roll is also available at the website of CEO, Andaman and Nicobar Islands at http://ceoan.and.nic.in with search facility. A separate SMS search has also been created. A helpline at 1950 has been activated.
These elections have seen many “firsts” for this Administration and the Election Department. For example it is for the first time that every single Polling Station in each and every area of this UT has been covered through a communication system of the Andaman and Nicobar Police. Over 450 VHF wireless units have come together on to single grid to convey full information for the General Elections. A comprehensive Communication Exercise was held on 3rd April 2014 to check these facilities with the Police and it was very successful. On the day of poll the Police will be playing a major role in communicating important information regarding the conduct of the elections.
A very extensive outreach campaign under the SVEEP initiative was launched in all the Polling Station areas in all districts. A unique innovation was the setting up of the VATAN which stands for ‘Voter Awareness Team for Andaman and Nicobar’. These teams comprising College students, performing artists and volunteers from all parts of this UT performed street plays, sung songs and encouraged people to come out and vote. Additionally, hoardings and banners have been put up all over the Islands, songs have been composed and inserts have been brought out in newspapers. The leaflets which have been printed were distributed in large numbers.
Many IT related innovations were introduced such as placing the entire electoral roll on the website and providing search and SMS search facilities. In fact, almost the entire work of the Offices of the CEO as well as RO and DEOs was done electronically.
For the first time, an attempt will be made on the poll day to have live webcasting from 5 Polling Stations. This is a very challenging task in this UT as everyone is well aware of the problems being faced in terms of connectivity. However the CEO stated that thanks to the efforts of the NIC and also the IT Department of this Administration, she was confident that this webcasting would be functional. She also stated that the IT Department has developed an application to find out the Polling Station details by giving the EPIC number of the voter from his/her mobile phone.
Again, for the first time, poll data, that is, total votes polled shall be collected and disseminated on 10th April 2014. This shall be done from 10 a.m. onwards every 2 hours and can be seen at the CEO website.
Also Voters Slips have been issued for the first time to all eligible voters with full information of the voter, the Polling Station and also the photograph of the voter.
Awareness on EVMs has been imparted for all persons from various locations and is in fact still continuing. This has been a-great help essentially for the first time voters on how to use the EVMs on the day of poll.
Campus Ambassadors were appointed, and a Knowledge, Aptitude, Behaviours and Practices (KABP) Survey was carried out. Football matches between the first time voters and veterans were held and Matdan Mela was conducted on 5th, 6th and 7th April 2014, particularly for the first time voters.
The CEO has also shared some interesting facts about elections in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Southernmost Polling Station in the country is at Shastri Nagar, in the Great Nicobar Island. In addition, around 60 persons from the Shompen tribe have voluntarily taken the EPIC Card and enrolled themselves. A Polling Station has been created inside the Shompen jungle for them. To conclude, CEO requested all voters to come out and vote.
