Pipili Bypoll: Model Code Of Conduct Comes Into Force In Odisha’s Puri

Bhubaneswar: With the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing April 17 date for by-election to Pipili Assembly constituency, the model code of conduct has come into force in Puri district.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sushil Kumar Lohani informed this at a press briefing on Wednesday. Lohani said the model code of conduct will be applicable to all state and Central government agencies and political parties.

Stating that the electoral roll of the voters will be used in accordance with the qualifying date of January 1, 2021, he said as the by-election is going to be held after January, the updation of electoral roll will continue till the last day of the nominations and people who have no voter identity card or those who want to update their data can also do this during the period.

The CEO said keeping the COVID-19 pandemic in view, the number of voters in each booth will be less than 1,000 for which the number of booths in Pipili constituency has been increased by 17 per cent from 271 to 348. Besides, efforts are on to set up 75 additional booths.

On the use of the EVMs and VVPAT machines for polling, Lohani said against the present requirement of these types of equipment, the CEO office has about 150 per cent of this equipment whose first-level technical checking has been done.

To identify genuine voters, Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) will be the main document. Apart from this, the ECI has allowed 11 other documents to establish the identity.

Stating that the COVID-19 guidelines like mandatory use of mask by the voters will be put in place in this bypoll as per the directive of the ECI in August 2020, the CEO said that to ensure social distancing, any meeting will be held in big halls. Apart from this, a nodal officer will be appointed to ensure proper implementation of the COVID-19 guidelines and take corrective measures if the guidelines are not properly implemented.

Speaking on the use of postal ballots in the bypoll, Lohani said people more than 80 years of age, persons with disability and those either afflicted with COVID-19 or have symptomatic conditions will be allowed for postal ballot voting. However, the handicapped people will be allowed for the postal balloting voting only after producing the documents certified by the concerned authorities, he pointed out.