For the first time, electronic voting machines (EVMs) would be used for Madhya Pradesh local bodies’ elections. Barring election of panchs, EVM machines would be used for all civic bodies and panchayat elections, said Madhya Pradesh Election Commissioner R Parshuram while chairing a meeting for the preparations of civic bodies elections for Indore division at the office of divisional commissioner office here on Friday.
Elections for all 432 wards of as many as 19 civic bodies in Indore division will start from November 2014 onward and will conclude by January 2015 end. Out of 19 civic bodies in Indore division, Indore district alone has nine civic bodies having a total of 190 wards.Parsuram informed that a total of 1,933 polling booths would be set up for elections in all nine civic bodies of the district. The civic bodies’ elections would be held in three phases and each phase will have a gap of ten days. However, in Indore district civic bodies’ elections would be held in two phases.
According to the State chief election commissioner, a new kind of electronic voting machines would be used for the local bodies’ elections in Madhya Pradesh.For urban civic bodies’ elections, the elections for the positions of mayors, counselors will be held simultaneously, while elections for the posts of panchs would be held through ballot papers, the chief state election commissioner added.Talking about preparedness for the civic bodies elections in Indore division, Parsuram said that Indore district was leading in the division as far as preparations for the civic bodies’ elections is concerned.
As the EVMs for civic bodies elections would be used for the first time, an intensive awareness drive would be launched across the division to make voters, especially women in rural and urban areas on the use of new electronic voting machines.The meeting, was attended by Indore divisional commissioner Sanjay Dube, State Election Commission secretary GP Shrivastava, Indore collector Aakash Tripathi, district collectors, election officers of all the district of Indore division.