Atmakur bypoll: Over 2.13 lakh voters to exercise their franchise

Nellore: Bypoll for Atmakur has been scheduled for June 23 and the model code of conduct has come into force in the entire district from Wednesday (May 25), according to District Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu.

He addressed the media on Thursday and the code will remain in force till June 28. The Collector said they were establishing 279 polling stations to enable 2,13,330 voters to exercise their franchise.

Among the voters, 1,05,924 are men, 1,07,733 are women, 11 are third gender, and 62 are service voters. There are 4,981 voters above 80 years of age and special arrangements such as wheelchairs are being provided to them apart from using the postal ballot. Official notification will be issued on May 30 and nominations will be accepted up to June 6.

The election will be on June 23rd and counting will be conducted on June 26th. Facilities like the ramp are being arranged for 4,777 physically challenged voters. As per the revised guidelines issued in view of the Covid situation, the number of voters for each polling station has been limited to 1,250 from 1,500 in the past and the polling stations are being arranged accordingly, said Collector.

Chakradhar Babu said 648 ballot units, 593 control units and 583 VVPATs are being used for the election, and they were already tested with the help of BEL engineers and kept securely in safe custody.