Kendrapara: Around 1,678 service voters, including military and paramilitary personnel, have been identified by the district administration in Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency for voting through the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS).
The Election Commission has made it mandatory for service voters to vote through ETPBS. Sub Collector Sanjay Kumar Mishra said service voters will vote through ETPBS from their places of posting.
ETPBS is a fully secured system developed by ECI for defence personnel to cast their votes. ETPBS enables voting through an electronically received postal ballot from anywhere.
Ballot papers are sent to service voters via ETPBS 10 days before elections. The recipient has to download and print the ballot paper.
The ETPBS is not new as it was used for the Nellithope Assembly by-election in Puducherry in 2016. Similarly, 9119 persons, including 2,767 women, will go to vote via postal ballot in Kendrapara LS seat, official sources said.
Sub Collector Mishra said many government officials, drivers, cleaners and boatmen have been drafted for poll duty in the district. They too will vote through postal ballot.
As per rules, only those people who are engaged in election duties will be eligible to vote using postal ballots.
A district Nodal Officer will be identified by the concerned authority for preparing data about them.
Officials have been asked to fill Form No 12 and it would be collected by the nodal officer. The nodal officer would hand over the filled up form to the District Election Officer. This has to be done not later than seven days before the polling date, Mishra said.
The district administration has prepared well to ensure smooth filing of nomination papers from April 2 to April 9.
The candidates of Kendrapara parliamentary seat will have to file their nomination papers before the Collector, who is the Returning Officer for LS polls.
Similarly, candidates contesting from the five Assembly seats in Kendrapara district will have to file their papers before the Sub Collector, ADM and Additional Sub Collector.
The ADM of Kendrapara, Basant Kumar Rout is the Returning Officer for Aul and Rajnagar Assembly segments.
Sub Collector Sanjay Kumar Mishra is the Returning Officer for Patkura and Kendrapara Assembly seats, and Additional Sub Collector P Jena is the RO for the Mahakalapada Assembly seat, said Collector Dasarathy Satapathy.
Two AROs and four clerks will assist each Returning Officer to ensure smooth filing of nominations, the Collector added.
PNN