The Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission (MPSEC) on Tuesday announced that the Commission proposed to conduct elections to 281 civic bodies out of total 378 in the State in the first phase in November.
While talking to media persons here, State Election Commissioner R Parshuram told, “This includes election to 11 Municipal Corporations, 62 Municipal Councils and 208 town councils. Election for seven civic bodies including four municipal corporations, two municipal councils and one town council will be held in the second and last phase in December. They included Municipal Corporations of Bhopal, Jabalpur, Chhindwara and Morena.”
He said that notification for the election would be announced after Deepawali. Election to the Ujjain Municipal Corporation, 35 Municipal Councils and 54 town councils would be conducted later when their tenure completes.
Elaborating on the initiatives taken by the MPSES, Parshuram said that multi-post electronic voting machines (EVMs) and photo-electoral rolls would be used for the first time during the civic bodies’ polls.
Besides, nominations filed by candidates and affidavits submitted by them would be made online. Voters could search their names on the photo electoral rolls using search facility online. likewise, voting percentage and counting results would be available online.Based on the latest technology around 51,000 EVM machines have been purchased for the elections of civic bodies.
Providing details of the latest technology used in the EVM Parshuram said that these machines are different from those which were used in the last State Assembly and Parliamentary elections. Removable memory storage is the new addition which is installed with every EVM and would record the selection made by the voter. This memory storage would be replaced and could be used on the day of the counting. The machine is now free for further use as the data has been extracted. The storage in the EVM machine would also be stored. In the way it would be recorded at two places but if required the machine could be used in other elections.
For smooth conducting of EVM around 700-750 master trainers have been trained who have trained the employees at the district level.