Mizoram gears up for ensuing assembly elections

Election office issued several directives for compliance

IPR

AIZAWL, October 09 2023: The Election Commission of India Monday announced the Schedule for the Conduct of the General Elections to the Mizoram Legislative Assembly. The schedule for the Election -

The Chief Electoral Officer of Mizoram Madhup Vyas has informed a series of preparatory activities in line with the guidelines of the Commission.

1. Electoral Rolls: The 2^nd Special Summary Revision of Photo Electoral Roll, 2023 with reference to October 1 as the qualifying date was conducted and the final publication of electoral roll has been done on October 4 2023. As per the finally published electoral roll, there are 4,12,969 male electors, 4,38,925 female electors, 4,973 service electors and the total electors in the State of Mizoram is  8,51,895. The Electoral Data may be analysed as below -

1) District with highest number of Electors: Aizawl (286807)

2) District with lowest number of Electors: Hnahthial (16294)

3) Assembly Constituency with highest number of Electors: 36-Tuichawng (Lawngtlai District) - 36042

4) Assembly Constituency with lowest number of Electors: 34-Thorang (Lunglei District) - 14909

5) Gender Ratio of 2023 (2nd SSR): 1063

6) District where male electors are more than female electors: Mamit (Gender Ratio - 980 i.e male - 32723 & female - 32064)

7) Assembly Constituencies where male electors are more than female electors: 1- Hachhek, 2-Dampa, 3-Mamit, 25-East Tuipui, 34-Thorang, 35-West Tuipui, 36-Tuichawng, 37-Lawngtlai West, 8-Chalfilh, 21-Lengteng

8) Part/Polling Station with highest number of Electors: 13/24 - Zemabawk VIII (13-Aizawl East I AC, Aizawl District) - 1481 Electors

9) Part/Polling Station with lowest number of Electors: 34/24 - Thehlep (34-Thorang AC, Lunglei District) - 26 Electors

10) Number of Young Voters (18-19 age group) - 50611

11) Number of Senior Citizen Voters (80+ age) - 8490

12) Number of Persons with Disability (PwD) Electors marked in Electoral Roll - 3243 (male - 1787 & female - 1456)

13) Total number of Polling Stations: 1276 (Urban - 525 & Rural - 751)

14) Number of Polling Stations in Legislative Assembly Elections, 2018: 1164 (Urban - 450 & Rural - 714)

15) Increase in number of Polling Stations: 112 (Urban - 75 & Rural - 37)

2. Polling Stations: There are 1276 polling stations in Mizoram where Election will be conducted. As mandated by the Commission, Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF) will be provided in each and every polling station. At least one polling station, each managed exclusively by women and Persons with Disabilities will be set up in every Assembly Constituency. Minimum of one Model Polling Station per Assembly Constituency will also be set up using and depicting local material and art forms to enhance voter experience while in the meantime to showcase local identity and unique feature. Moreover, as a new initiative, at least one Polling Station per district will be managed by the Polling teams consisting of available youngest eligible employee of that District to promote greater participation of youth in the electoral process. As directed by the Commission, arrangements for webcasting will be made in at least 50% of total polling stations including all critical polling stations.

3. Postal ballot/home voting facility:  This will be extended to categories of voters like PwD Voters with 40% + benchmark disabilities and 80+ Senior Citizens. Accordingly, in order to facilitate smooth and efficient execution of this special provision, an Additional Assistant Returning Officer(ARO) is appointed for each Assembly Constituency, in addition to the normal practice of appointing 1(one) Returning Officer and 1(one) Assistant Returning Officer.

4. Eco-friendly elections: Election Commission of India has issued advisories urging political parties and candidates to avoid single-use plastic and non-biodegradable material and to use only environment-friendly material for campaign purposes.  All political parties should take adequate steps and measures not to use single-use plastic as campaign materials (posters and banners) during the elections in the interest of human health and environment.

5. Law and Order, Security Arrangements and Deployment of   Forces: Elaborate security arrangement based on the assessment of the ground situation has been put into place wherein around 450 Section  of Central Armed Police Forces(CAPF) in addition to the 3000 odd State Police personnel  will be deployed throughout the State during the upcoming elections.

6. Election Expenditure Monitoring:  For the purpose of effective monitoring of the election expenditure of the candidates deployment of Assistant Expenditure Observers, Flying Squads FS), Static Surveillance Teams (SST), Video Surveillance Teams (VST), Video Viewing Teams (VVT), Accounting Teams (AT), Media Certification & Monitoring Committee (MCMC), District Expenditure Monitoring Committee (DEMC) have all been put place. In addition, various enforcement agencies like State Police, State Excise, State Tax, Investigation Directorate of Income Tax Deptt., CBIC, Enforcement Directorate, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND), DRI, RPF, BCAS, CISF, BSF, Assam Rifles, ITBP, ICG, Commercial Tax Department, Narcotics Control Bureau and Department of Post will be active with the announcement of election. State Excise Department has been asked to strictly enforce the Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition) Act 2019.

7. Use of Media & Information Technology (IT):  State Level Media Cell has been established under the Chairmanship of Addl. Chief Electoral Officer, Mizoram and a state of the art Media Centre is also established at CEO Office for a positive and progressive engagement and interaction with the media, and to facilitate optimum use of media platforms during elections. Authority letters will be issued to all accredited media for the polling day and day of counting. Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMC) are in place at all the Districts and State level. All political advertisements proposed to be issued on electronic media shall require pre- certification from the concerned MCMC. Keeping in view increasing incidents of misuse of Social Media and menace of Paid News, an elaborate Social Media Cell, under the Chairmanship of Addl. Chief Electoral Officer is established and will be actively monitoring electronic, print and social media related activities from the announcement of election.

8. Training : In line with the prescribed training programme developed by India International Institute of Democracy and Election management (IIIDEM), training of State Level Master Trainers, District Level Master Trainers, Police Officers Training, Sector Officers training, political party training, training of Nodal Officers of all Government Departments have been completed. Still several stages of  training programme will continue at the District Level till Poll Day which will ensure that all personnel and stakeholders involve  in the election  process are well versed with their domain concerned.

For greater citizen participation and transparency, the Commission has enhanced usage of IT Application. Voter Helpline Apps & NVSP Portal (for all voters), Saksham App(for PwDs), cVIGIL Apps(for lodging of election related complaints), Suvidha App & Portal(for candidate and political party) and Know Your Candidate App(information about "Criminal Antecedents" status of candidates) will be activated and made available.

9. Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP):  In order to surpass Voter Turnout in 2018 i,e, 81.11% targeted interventions and efforts through SVEEP activities in the low voter turnout areas and identified vulnerable communities have been  intensively taken up. All DEOs have formulated Turnout Implementation Plan (TIP) and this will be executed effectively in the identified areas and amongst the identified groups of people/communities.

10. EVMs and VVPATs: The latest M3 model of EVMs/VVPATs manufactured by ECIL will be used for the current Election. The Commission has deployed sufficient quantity of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) along with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) for conduct of the Election. First Level Checking (FLC) of adequate EVMs/VVPATs have been completed and securely stored in all the District’s Strong Rooms. EVM Demonstration Centres are set up at the Office of the District Election Officer and Returning Officer Headquarters for physical demonstration-cum-awareness. Mobile Demonstration Vans are deployed to create awareness on use of EVMs and VVPATs to cover all polling locations which will be operational till announcement of elections, whereas digital outreach will be intensified after announcement.

11. Model Code of Conduct:  Model Code of Conduct comes into effect immediately from the announcement of schedule and will apply to the whole of Mizoram with regard to all candidates, political parties and all Departments and public undertakings under the State Government.  Any violation of these guidelines would be strictly dealt with and it is reiterated that the instructions issued in this regard from time to time should be read, understood and complied by all stakeholders.

The CEO Madhup Vyas seeks the active cooperation, close collaboration and constructive partnership of all the esteemed stakeholders especially the Media Community in the electoral process and strives to employ the collective synergies towards delivering a smooth, free, fair, peaceful, inclusive, participative and festive General Assembly Election, 2023 in Mizoram.

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