M A I N   N E W S

EC gears up for multi-phase LS polls starting mid-April

Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will also go polls for their state Assemblies along with the Lok Sabha elections. "The announcement of the poll schedule would be done by February end or the beginning of March," sources told PTI. During the 2009 polls, there were 714 million voters against 671 million voters in 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Before the announcement for polls, the Lok Sabha may meet for one last time to pass a vote-on-account budget to enable expenditure for six months of the new fiscal year 2014-15 to give time for the new Government to present a full-fledged budget in the next Parliament. There is also speculation that a special session of Parliament may be convened shortly to pass anti-corruption measures by the government in the run up to the elections.

Announcement likely in Feb-end The announcement of the poll schedule would be done by February-end or the beginning of March, said sources The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31 The commission is looking into the issue of whether to spread the elections over five phases or may be one more phase

The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31.

The commission is looking into the issue of whether to spread the elections over five phases or may be one more phase. "We already have a list of electoral rolls. We need to update it.

We expect that before January end, the lists will be ready," a top EC official said.

A total of 1.1 crore poll personnel, half of them being security forces will be deployed for the smooth conduct of polls and to ensure that they are free and fair.

Other work in the run-up to the announcement of the poll schedule is in full swing. Dates are being considered for a meeting with the Union Home Secretary for finalising deployment plans of central para-military forces before announcement of the poll schedule. Chief Electoral Officers of various states are also holding separate meetings with DGPs of states for availability of state police forces for polls.

The EC is also working on finalising the polling stations for elections. At least 8 lakh polling stations are to be set up for polling across the country.

The poll body is working out last-minute changes in polling stations for the convenience of both voters and poll staff. Preparations for deployment of around 12 lakh electronic voting machines are also being made and the Commission is likely to get another 2.5 lakh new EVMs by mid-February which it had ordered with various public-sector companies.

The last Lok Sabha polls were held in five phases from April 16 to May 13 and the counting of votes was done on May 16, 2009. The announcement for the last Lok sabha polls was done on March 2, 2009. — PTI