Jammu, Aug 19: With the issuance of first notification for Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on August 20, final electoral rolls of the Union Territory will be published the same day and number of the voters is expected to be close to nine millions.
As per the last revision of last electoral rolls, Jammu and Kashmir has 87.09 lakh voters. After publication of final electoral rolls on August 20, number of the electorates is expected to be between 88 lakh to 89 lakh i.e. very close to 9 millions.
With the publication of electoral rolls, the latest exercise of Special Summary Revision will be over. The Assembly-segment wise voter lists will also be published and the political parties as well as the candidates will have access to them.
“The lists with number of areas and electorates will be of more significance this time as boundaries of many Assembly constituencies have been changed following exercise undertaken by the Delimitation Commission after increase in number of Assembly seats from 83 to 90,” the officials said.
Among 87.09 lakh voters at present in the Union Territory, 44.46 lakh are males and 42.62 lakh are females.
Besides, there are 169 transgender, 82590 People with Disabilities (PwDs), 73943 Very Senior Citizens, 2660 Centenarians, 76092 Service Electors and 3.71 lakh First Time Voters.
Over two million voters (around 21 lakh) are young aged between 20-29.
Number of the Polling Stations in Jammu and Kashmir is 11,838 including 2332 in urban areas and 9506 in rural areas.
Average voters per Polling Station stand at 735.
First notification for three-phase Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be issued on August 20 for a total of 24 constituencies.
The candidates can file their nomination papers till August 27 while scrutiny of the documents will be held on August 28.
The candidates can withdraw their nomination papers on August 30. Voting for the first phase Assembly constituencies will be held on September 18.
Second phase of voting is scheduled for September 25 for a total of 26 Assembly segments while third phase polling will be held on October 1 for 40 seats.
Major political parties including the BJP, National Conference, Congress, PDP, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, People’s Conference, Bahujan Samaj Party and others are expected to announce candidates for first phase of the elections in next three to four days to facilitate the nominees to file their papers.
Since the Assembly elections are being held after nearly a decade, the Election authorities are expecting number of the candidates to be between 700 to 900. A number of Independent candidates are also expected to be in the fray.
Voting percentage which was brisk in the Lok Sabha elections held in April-May this year is likely to go up further as the Assembly polls generally witness more turnout than the Parliamentary elections, the officials said.
Arrangements for the elections are being made taking huge turnout of voters into account and increased number of candidates in the fray, they added.
(Daily Excelsior)
