Kannur: Taking serious view of complaints of
irregularities in the election process of the November seven
bypoll to Kannur assembly constituency, officials have
enforced stern steps to ensure free and fair polling.
The decision was finalised after an all party meeting,
chaired by new District Collector P B Salim at the
Collectorate here this evening, official sources said.
It has been decided to take photographs and finger prints
of people as they cast votes and to have videograph in all the
trouble-prone polling stations.
While 40 observers would closely monitor the election
process, 22 sectoral magistrates and an equal number of police
teams would be deployed in the constituency from tomorrow to
take stock of the election process. It has also been decided
to depute officials having the rank of Tahsildars in 10 to 15
booths, he sources said.
The number of security forces in the total 119 polling
booths would be doubled while 10 additional security forces
each would be deployed in 64 polling stations identified as
"vulnerable".
Representatives of leading political parties including
CPI-M, Congress, BJP and Muslim League attended the all party
meeting, the sources said.
Opposition UDF had accused CPI-M of misuing official
machinery by including sizeable number of "bogus" voters and
deleting large number of electorates from the previous list.
The CPI-M had accused Union Minister Vayalar Ravi of
violating model code of conduct by offering sops during his
visit to Kannur recently.
Bureau Report
