Mizoram election 2023: Over 8.5 lakh voters to exercise their right of franchise in Assembly polls

The Chief Electoral Officer of Mizoram, Madhup Vyas, held a press conference on October 25 ahead of the assembly election.

In a press conference regarding the various instructions of the Commission, the Chief Electoral Officer, Mizoram, has undertaken Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer, Madhup Vyas, IAS announced a series of preparatory exercises and activities in line with the standard established by the Commission for conduct of General Election to Mizoram legislative Assembly 2023. Here are the details - 

1. ELECTORAL ROLL: As per Final Electoral Roll, there are 4,13,062 male electors, 4,39,026 female electors and 4,975 Service electors and the total electors in the state of Mizoram is 8,57,063. 

2. POLLING STATIONS: The final list of 1276 Polling Stations where election will be conducted have already been shared to the Election Commission of India and all district election Officers are instructed to publish the final list of Polling Stations within their respective District by not later than 3 days after last date of withdrawal of nominations as mandated by the Commission, which will be shared with all contesting candidates. All the District Election Officers are installing the Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF) and are ensuring accessibility for Persons with Disability (PwD) in all the polling stations. 

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3. TRAINING OF POLLING PERSONNEL: 1st Training for Polling Parties comprising of 1470 each of Presiding Officers, Ist, 2nd and 3rd Polling Officers have been conducted by all District Election Officers and 2nd Training is ongoing in some of the districts too. As per latest report from all the district, there is no deficiency on the required manpower. 

4. WEBCASTING OF POLL: Arrangements have been put in place for installation and implementation of webcasting in 765 out of the 1276 polling stations which is 60% of all polling stations in the whole of Mizoram. The service will be provided by Multi Computer Services, West Bengal for which all codal formalities have been finalized and work to commence from 27.10.2023. 

5. EVMs/VVPATs : 

i) 1st Randomisation: Allocation of EVMs/VVPATs to various Assembly constituencies to be used for Poll Day through 1st Randomisation was completed on 18th October 2023.

ii) 2nd Randomisation: Allocation of EVMs/VVPATs to various Polling Stations under each Assembly constituency was successfully completed on 23rd October 2023 by all 11 Districts in the presence of respective General Observers deployed by ECI. 

iii) ECI has approved increasing the percentage of EVM/VVPAT assigned for training purposes from 10% to 15% of the total number of polling stations. This will increase the number of EVM/VVPAT available for imparting adequate hands-on training to Polling Officials who will be conducting elections on Poll Day at 1276 Polling Stations across the State. 

iv) Commissioning (preparation of EVMs/VVPATs for Poll) will commence from 27th October 2023. Forty-eight (48) Engineers from Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) will be deployed for the purpose. 

v) A list of EVMs/VVPATs to be used for the Poll has been duly shared to all contesting candidates. 

vi) All EVMs/VVPATs have been stored securely in the District Strong rooms guarded round the clock by armed security personnel and under CCTV coverage. 

6. BALLOT PAPERS: Printing of Ballot papers for use in the Control Unit is done at Government Press as per ECI protocol and has been completed. All Districts collected their Ballot Papers on 25 October 2023 from the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

7. POSTAL BALLOT: There will be 4 categories of electors who will be availing postal ballot facility: 

i) Senior citizens (80+) 

ii) PwD mapped in E-Roll with benchmark disability 

iii) Notified Essential Services 

iv) Voters on election duty 

Concerned ROs have issued relevant forms and a number of applications have been received. This will be followed up to ensure that all eligible applications are able to avail this facility.

e-Postal Ballot have been generated and transmitted to all 4,975 service voters through Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot Management System (ETPBMS). 

8. HOME VOTING: Home voting facility will be provided to a total of 2092 Senior Citizens (80+) and Persons with Disability (PwD) in the 40 Assembly Constituencies of Mizoram. Number of valid applications for home voting is at Annexure - I

9.  ELECTION EXPENDITURE MONITORING: All expenditure monitoring teams have been deployed and worked under the direct supervision of the Expenditure Observer deployed by ECI for all Assembly Constituencies. All Enforcement Agencies have been actively involved in the monitoring of election expenditures. Seizures Reports have been received on daily basis from all Nodal Departments. Seizures made so far, since the announcement of the election by ECI on 9th October 2023 is enclosed as Annexure-II. 

10.  MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT: Model Code of Conduct has been strictly enforced throughout the State. A number of cases have been referred by respective departments to the Screening Committee of MCC constituted under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, Mizoram and one or two cases sent to the Commission for its consideration. 

11. NOMINATION: There are 174 contesting candidates who will be vying for a seat in the 40-seat Mizoram Legislative Assembly. Details are enclosed as Annexure - III. 

12. OBSERVERS: 21 (twenty-one) General Observers, 14 (fourteen) Expenditure Observers and 11 (eleven) Police Observers deployed by ECI have all reported to their designated constituencies and have held meetings with stakeholders and discharged their duties without hindrance.

13. CRIMINAL ANTECEDENTS: The Commission, in pursuance of the directions in the Judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, has given directions to be followed by candidates at elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures who have criminal cases against them, either pending cases or cases of conviction in the past and to the political parties that set up such candidates to publish the records of criminal antecedents. Candidates who have published their records are at Annexure – IV. 

14. POLL DAY ARRANGEMENT: After a series of consultations and examination of available technology for pre and Poll Day reporting by officials for seamless transmission of reports, including voter turnout reports, it is decided that the POLLSTAR app will be the most suitable and effective, hence will be utilized for reporting. 

15. FORCE DEPLOYMENT: Apart from the 3000 odd state police personnel and out of the 450 sections of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), 10 Coys of BSF, 5 Coys of CRPF & SSB have reached Mizoram and are already in their places of deployment. The detailed list is at Annexure – V. 

16. AIR AMBULANCE: Arrangements have been made to deploy 1 (one) Pawan Hans Helicopter at Mualpui Helipad to be on standby on Poll Day from 7 AM to 4 PM. 

17. SVEEP AND MEDIA: State and district SVEEP teams are organising Young Voters’ Festival, Cycling Rallies, and EVM Demonstration camps and have also taken various innovative activities including dissemination of awareness on public transport through flyers and jingles on social media platforms. Discussion and talk shows on various topics are being organized in DDK, Local Cable TV channels and FM Radio channels. 

State Media Cell has been taking a proactive role as per mandate and has conducted regular media briefing and training for Information and Public Relations Officers of all districts. Press clippings are compiled and forwarded to ECI on a daily basis and is constantly monitoring media activities in the state. It has conducted a sensitization workshop for media persons covering elections and is organizing a competition for print media houses on voter awareness. 

Media Certification Monitoring Committee (MCMC) meetings have also been held at the state and district levels and the committees have carefully scrutinized advertisement contents to be published by political parties to ensure a level playing field and a fair build-up to the election. 

‘Young Voters Club/Social Media Influencers Club’ is being formed by the Media Cell of the CEO Office which shall make use of social media platforms for voter awareness. 

The CEO Mizoram 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.