Thaindian News

Thiruvananthapuram, March 2 (IANS) Women voters outnumber men in Kerala, the state’s chief electoral officer Nalini Netto said Wednesday, a day after the announcement that assembly elections would be held April 13.

According to the latest revised electoral list, there are 11,919,652 women voters as compared to 10,959,115 men.

“In the 2006 assembly polls, the total number of voters was 21,430,061,” she said.

There would be 20,758 polling booths in 11,662 polling locations. “Apart from these polling booths, there would also be around 500 auxiliary polling booths,” she said, adding that details would be announced before the elections.

Additions to the voters list will continue till the third week of March.

This is the first assembly election being held after a fresh delimitation of constituencies. However, the number of constituencies stays at 140 as earlier. Malappuram district leads with 16 assembly constituencies, four more than the 2006 polls, while the number of constituencies has come down in a few districts.

Netto also cautioned the people in the state to not carry more than Rs.1 lakh in cash as the model code of conduct was now in place.

“A surveillance team, including police personnel, a magistrate and income tax officials, is on the move in each sub division. If those found with money in excess cannot give a reasonable explanation, it would be treated as an election offence. Every action of the surveillance team would be videographed.”

She also added that every candidate standing for the polls could spend up to Rs.1.6 million as election expenses and a separate bank account had to be opened for this.

“Once in 21 days, the candidate’s agent will have to submit the statement of accounts on the expenditure incurred. A special team will also monitor if there are any paid news items,” said Netto.