Palakkad (Kerala), Nov 19 (PTI) Over 1.90 lakh voters will cast their votes on Wednesday to elect their representative for the Palakkad constituency in the Kerala Assembly, following a month-long high-energy campaign for the by-election.
The by-election became necessary after Congress leader Shafi Parambil resigned as MLA of the constituency upon his election to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara during the general elections.
Ten candidates are contesting, with the key contenders being Rahul Mamkootathil (Congress-led UDF), C Krishnakumar (BJP-led NDA), and P Sarin (CPI(M)-led LDF).
As per the final voter list, a total of 1,94,706 voters are eligible to vote, including 1,00,290 women voters.
There are 2,306 voters of above 85 years, 780 differently-abled voters, and four transgender voters. Additionally, 2,445 are first-time voters, and 229 are expatriates, the Election Commission said in a statement here.
Voting will take place from 7 am to 6 pm, with a mock poll starting at 5.30 am. The distribution of polling materials, including voting machines, was completed on Tuesday.
There are 184 polling stations in total, including four auxiliary booths, with 736 polling officers deployed. All booths have facilities such as ramps, toilets, and drinking water. the EC said.
One polling station and nine model polling booths will be supervised by women officers. Webcasting of the polling process will take place in all polling stations, it said.
The Election Commission has identified seven polling centres in three locations as sensitive and 58 booths as vulnerable. Enhanced security, involving central security forces and police, will be provided at these booths, the EC added.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)