Election Commission of India(ECI) has started preparations for the election of Uttar Pradesh’s next assembly early next year.
During the first phase of preparations the present standard of 1,500 voters per polling is likely to be revised and brought to 1,000 voters per booth. The ECI has asked the Chief electoral officer of UP to ascertain the number of increase in number of booth if the number of voters per booth is fixed at 1,000-1,200, officials here on Monday said .
The standard of minimum voter is being revised in the wake of the pandemic. The standard of 1,000 voters per booth was also adopted for the assembly elections held in Bihar and West Bengal. The elections in Bihar were held in November 2020 and West Bengal in April 2021.
The chief electoral officer of UP has send a report to the ECI for the number of voters to be revised at 1,000 voters per booth. The ECI had sought the report from the CEO, UP.
ECI makes an extra effort to identify sensitive polling booths and ensures the safety of voters as they come out to cast their ballots; it revises electoral rolls in a very timely manner; and it runs a fairly extensive voter turnout programme entitled SVEEP or Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation.
While these efforts have borne fruit, there are simple institutional reforms that will increase voter turnout. During field research, it was found that voter turnout is lower in polling booths with a larger electorate and when multiple polling booths are located within one polling centre.
The work on revising the polling booths and polling centers is likely to be completed by the end of August.
The ECI will later launched the roll revision programme from September onwards which is expected to be completed by the end of December. During the roll revision, the names of all those attaining the age of 18 years on January 1, 2021 will also be included in the electoral rolls.
All the voters who had been left out will also be included in the voters list. Along with the assembly elections in UP, the state assemblies of Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur will also go to polls.
The present 17th UP assembly was constituted on March 14, 2017 and the first meeting of the state assembly was held on May 15, 2017. The poll schedule for the state assembly election can be announced any time six months ahead of May 15, 2017. As soon as the poll schedule is announced the model code of conduct will come into force and the all the officers and state employees will be treated as on deputation to the EC
