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The Sonitpur district election office dispatched polling parties to their respective polling stations on Thursday for the first phase of elections.
The first phase of polls in five parliamentary constituencies--Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, and Kaziranga--will be held on April 19. For the Sonitpur parliamentary constituency, dispatch of polling parties and security personnel started from Darrang College in Assam's Sonitpur district on Thursday. There are more than 1800 polling stations in the Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat. Kavita Kakati Konwar, Additional District Commissioner of Sonitpur District, told ANI that nearly 5000 polling personnel will be dispatched to 1100 polling stations and more than 10,000 polling personnel will be engaged in polling for the Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat. "All preparations have been made and we are fully prepared to hold the elections. We have set up model polling stations as well. There are around 150 women polling stations," Kavita Kakati Konwar said. More than 16.25 lakh voters in the Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat will exercise their franchise in 1878 polling stations. Earlier, the Chief Electoral Officer of Assam, Anurag Goel, said on Wednesday that all the vehicles carrying EVMs will be equipped with GPS tracking devices and satellite phones will be made available in far-flung areas. "We have arranged GPS tracking of all the vehicles that will be carrying EVMs and this will be monitored by the District Election Officer, CEO and Election Commission. We have also provided satellite phones in very hard-to-reach areas," said Anurag Goel. "Dry day has been declared the 48 hours before the poll up to closing the poll of the first phase and a paid holiday has been declared for all the government as well as non-government private sector staff so that they can take part in this democratic festival and cast their votes in order to choose a responsible government," Anurag Goel added further. The Chief Electoral Officer, Assam, also showed confidence in conducting a free and fair election, as observers have been put in all the constituencies. "Around 86.47 lakh voters will exercise their votes in 10,001 polling stations. The campaigning for the first phase of polls ended on Wednesday at 5 pm. In the first phase, we have around 86.47 lakh voters, out of which around 42,000 are 80+ age voters and 1500 are 100+ age. There are more than 58,000 PWD voters of which around 13,000 are visually impaired and we have made special arrangements for braille ballot papers," said Anurag Goel. "The Assam Election department has already distributed to the voter's information guide, slips which will enable them to find out and reach out to the polling stations. There are 10,001 polling stations that have been set up and out of these 219 polling stations are critical, but we are arranging webcasting in around 5500 polling stations putting 11,000 cameras. This webcasting will be visible to the district election officers, CEO and Election Commission of India," Anurag Goel added. (ANI)
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