Gujarat CEO office on poll awareness drive with booth-level meets, voter invitation card

Organising booth-level meetings, distributing invitation letters to families and putting up banners at IPL matches are among the steps the office of Gujarat's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) is taking to increase voter awareness ahead of the May 7 polling in the state.

The CEO office, in a statement on Wednesday, said it has undertaken an extensive voter awareness programme to maximise participation of people in the democratic exercise, especially women and young electors.

The statement said the CEO's office has completed randomization of polling staff along with training of presiding and election officers across the state, which will have a single phase voting for its 26 Lok Sabha seats.

The office will carry out randomization of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) between April 4 and 8 before handing them over to local officers for storage, it said.

The office has undertaken an extensive awareness programme to maximise voter participation with organisation of booth-level meetings and distribution of invitation cards to encourage women electors to come out and exercise their franchise, the statement said.

''Booth-level meetings will be organised to encourage women to vote and an invitation card will be issued, on behalf of the CEO, inviting the family to vote,'' it said.

CEO P Bharathi said an online meet was held with ''campus ambassadors'' to encourage young voters to exercise their franchise. Also, during IPL matches at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, multiple voting awareness activities were being carried out.

An online meet was organised through Facebook Live with campus ambassadors to motivate young people to vote. About 1,200 campus ambassadors participated in it. Apart from this, workshops were held with social media influencers, MoU partners and district icons to encourage maximum voter participation, the CEO said.

''During IPL matches to be held at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, multiple voting awareness activities will be undertaken through videos, hoardings and banners prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the CEO,'' said the statement.

The ECI has trained PwDs (persons with disabilities) district nodal officers and appointed seven IAS officers for checking necessary facilities at polling station for differently-abled people, it said.

The first randomization of EVMs will be conducted from April 4 to 8 by the respective district election officers in the presence of nationally recognised political parties. Such EVMs will be handed over to assistant election officers of all assembly constituencies, the CEO said.

Meanwhile, the statement said cash, jewellery and contraband worth Rs 66.09 crore have been seized so far in the state as part of the model code of conduct implementation. More than 47,900 licenced firearms have been deposited and over 27,300 non-bailable warrants executed.

A total of 816 complaints were received on c-VIGIL mobile app between March 16 and April 1 regarding violation of the model cod of conduct, and they were resolved as per the ECI guidelines, it added.

Furthermore, during the period, 5,825 complaints were received on the National Grievance Services Portal regarding Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC), 425 related to voter list, 92 regarding voter slip and 1,138 others.

Besides, 50 complaints were received on the voter helpline number and all were disposed of as per the poll panel's guidelines, said the statement.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)