Almost 50 per cent of voters in Gujarat, which will go to the polls on April 30, are in the age group of 20 to 39 years. Announcing the implementation of model code of conduct and giving out details of election schedule, Gujarat chief election commissioner Anita Karwal today said that of the total 3.98 crore registered voters in the state, 2.08 crore are male and 1.90 crore a female. While youth is forming a major chunk of the electorate this season, there are 78.8 lakh voters aged between 40 and 49 years, followed by 32 lakh in the age group of 60 to 69 years, 16 lakh of 70 to 79 years, 5 lakh of 80 to 89 years, 60,500 of 90 to 99 years. There are 8,250 voters who are aged 100 and above. Besides, the number of first-time voters – aged between 18 and 19 years – is 9.5 lakh. The highest number of voters are in the age group of 30 to 30, which is 1.1 crore followed by 1 crore voters aged between 20 and 29 years. There will be a total of 45,313 polling stations at 27,360 locations across the state. However, the electorate largely come from the rural area as there will be total 21,714 polling stations in rural areas against only 5,646 in the urban pockets. Karwal said that 20 to 22 per cent of these stations can be catergorised as vulnerable and sensitive. She, however, declined to identify these stations so that voters do not get scared. In the state, addition of new voters can be done till March 30, while deletion, as model code of conduct is in place, is not possible now. Photo voter identity slips will be distributed by the EC 3 to 7 days prior to the polling date. Notification will be released on April 9 from which the candidates can file the candidature. On April 10, the EC will do the scrutiny of nominations and April 12th will be the date for withdrawal. Karwal maintained that the central election commission has raised the bar for LS candidate expenditure to Rs 70 lakh from Rs 40 lakh, where as there is no ceiling for the party expenditure. The candidates will have to open a special bank account and transaction should be done through cheques. Karwal said that from the date of filing of nomination till the polling day, the EC will check candidates’ bank accounts thrice and all the details will be uploaded on the Chief Election Commission’s website. There will be a total four state level nodal officers including for election expenditure, police, income tax and an SMS monitor. Karwal also said that parties advertisements on social media will also be monitored and the case of objections will be considered one by one as they come up. The EC in Gujarat will also do extensive use of social media for voters awareness campaign. As per the CEC guidelines, in suspicious cases, candidates or party members with more than Rs 50,000 cash and gift articles more than Rs 10,000 will be seized by the flying squad. Besides, there will also be video surveillance squad, accounting squad, video viewing squad and static surveillance. There will be two phone helplines. One would be about electoral list which will be chargeable, while the other will be for registering complains regarding model code of conduct which will be toll free. The details of district wise helplines will be put on website soon. Besides, a helpline number 1950 across nation is already functional. She said it is not yet clear that how many companies from outside the state will come, but other measures like web casting, micro observers comprising of (central government and non-state government officers on polling booths and video shooting at the polling booths will be done. Cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara and tennis player Ankita Raina are state EC icon for conducting voters awareness drive. BOX Assembly bypolls Gujarat chief election commissioner Anita Karwal on Wednesday said that by-elections to seven assembly constituencies will also be held on April 30 in one phase. The assembly constituencies that will go to the polls are Abdasa (Kutch), Rapar (Kutch), Himmatnagar (Sabarkantha), Visavadar (Junagadh), Somnath (Gir Somnath), Lathi (Amreli) and Mandvi(Surat).
