Electon machinery in J

Srinagar, Sep 26 (UNI) Even though the Election Commission (ECI) has yet to announce date for holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the state machinery has geared up for the polls in the state where nearly 65 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise this time.

Meanwhile, a team of engineers from Bangalore is currently repairing the machines in the Valley where Electronic Voting Machines have been checked and defective electronic machines are being repaired.

Poll preparation is being made despite negative response from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Awami National Conference (ANC) and National Conference (NC), who are in favour of holding the election only after restoring conducive atmosphere in the state.

As per official figures, a total number of electorate for 2008 Assembly Elections will be 64,97,593. Out of these 33,52,147 will be male and 31,45,445 female voters.

The total number of electorate in 2002 Assembly Elections was 63,71,858. Of these 29,01,832 were female voters whereas 34,70,026 were male voters.

In 2005 an intensive revision of electoral rolls was undertaken and after deletion and addition the number of electorate remained at 62,89,857 in 2005. Out of these 32,52,503 were male and 30,37,354 were female voters.

The figures show there was marked decrease in the number of male voters and marked increased in the number of female voters as a result of the intensive revision in 2005.

It said the summary revision of electoral rolls is an ongoing process and even voters are still registering their names with the booth level officers.

The process of preparing Electronic Photo Identity Cards to the voters is also going on and so far a checklist in respect of Budgam and Ganderbal districts has been printed while in case of Pulwama it is going to be printed shortly. In other districts the process is yet to start.

UNI BAS BDP DS1253