Tasaduq Hussain
Srinagar, Oct 3: Authorities in the Ladakh region have put in all the arrangements for the smooth conduct of 5th general LAHDC Kargil polls on Wednesday.
Initially, the election was scheduled to be held on September 10 but was later changed to October 4 following the Supreme Court verdict.
As per details available, a total of 85 candidates belonging to parties such as National Conference, Congress, BJP, AAP and Independent are in the fray.
Officials said that the polling will start at 8 am and end at 4 pm tomorrow (Wednesday). The counting will be held on October 8 and overall election process will end on 11.
Officials said that there are a total of 26 constituencies and 278 polling stations have been set up.
An official said that there are 114 are hyper-sensitive polling stations, 99 are sensitive, and 65 are normal. “Security will be deployed as per the category. All the arrangements have been put in place,” he added.
The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was enforced on the 7th of September. Flying squads were deployed in all constituencies to keep a check on everything, he said.
For the first time, the official said EVMs will be used in LAHDC elections. “It is an M2-type machine and there is a separate rule for conducting Hill Council elections. We have sought permission from ECI for everything to be used here. The machine is completely safe and no external device can be connected to it. There shall be no doubt about it and no modification can be done to the machine,” the official said.
The official further said that Micro observers have also been deployed in different constituencies which is for the first time.
“Strong room shall remain under CVTV surveillance. We are committed to ensuring transparent elections. Sufficient security arrangements have been made,” the official said.
The official further said that Polling employees along with EVMs and other statutory materials assisted by security personnel were dispatched towards their polling Stations.
Notably, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) is politically significant for all parties given elections are happening in Kargil for the first time since Article 370 was abrogated in August 2019. Earlier, the council was headed by a National Conference associate Feroz Khan.
NC and Congress have entered into a pre-and post-poll alliance aimed at keeping BJP away from power. AAP is also contesting for the first time in Kargil.
