IMPHAL, May 24: Preparations for the smooth conduct of tomorrow`™s Imphal Municipal Council election in all 27 polling stations under the municipal council is all set with all police personnel deputed by the state for the polling stations already stationed at their respective polling stations since this evening and the arrival of the polling personnel with the Electronic Voting Machines to their respective polling stations.
According to the official reports of concerned election Returning officers of both districts, all the poling personnel equipped with the Electronic Voting Machines along with deputed state security forces which were made to dispersed from the respective DC offices of Imphal at Porompat and DC office of Imphal West at Lamphelpat have reportedly reached their respective polling stations and ready for conducting the election of each and every polling stations of the 27 wards of the Imphal Municipal Council which will start from 7 am till 4 am.
In the meantime with the sending of the polling personnel along with the state security forces to each and every polling stations for the ensuing polls tomorrow the activation of regular patrolling by the deputed police commandos team called up from the different police stations of both districts of Imphal East and Imphal West have initiated their regular petrol duties from this evening in an around the polling stations of both districts to prevent any election related violence prior to the poll.
In the meantime, as per the final official figure the ensuing election to the 27 wards including seven wards in Imphal East districts and 20 wards in Imphal West a total of 88 candidates are contesting for the 27 councillors while 179 candidates are contesting for the 54 WDC members.
According to the report, after proper assessment of the wards conducted by the concerned police in both districts of Imphal West district and Imphal East, it has been found that 26 Polling Stations have been categorized as Hyper Sensitive polling stations, 77 Polling Station as sensitive Polling Stations while the remaining Polling Station are counted as normal. There will be maximum concentration of security forces to the polling stations of Imphal East during the poll hours as the maximum polling stations in Imphal East district are registered Hyper Sensitive as a result the state government has made special security arrangement for the smooth and successful conduct of the election to the polling stations under Imphal East as well as in Imphal West tomorrow.
In the meantime, the state government considering the intensity of election related crimes which are expected to rise during the eve of the poll, decided to deploy 12 state forces including six armed personnel headed by an Inspector or SI along with four VDFs and two women police constable or women home guards each at the hyper sensitive polling stations; 10 armed police personnel headed by Inspector or SI along with three VDFs along with two women police constables or home guards in the sensitive polling stations while there will be provision of seven personnel including three armed and two unarmed VDFs and two women personnel either from Police or Home Guard in normal poling stations.
On the other hand, an official briefing have already been given to all concerned SPs of the valley districts of the state by the DGP Manipur very recently to ensure that the official directives for security arrangement in connection to the May 25 election is properly maintained and the concerned SPs of the valley districts have also given their official directives to all OCs concerned of Police stations and Outposts to made available the security personnel from the concerned PS and OP.
It may be mentioned that with the inaction of Manipur Municipality Act 1994, in the state the election of Municipal Councils in the state was first held during 1995 and followed in 2001, 2006 and the ensuing election will be the fourth election of the Municipal Council during which election of additional two members of Ward Development Committee for every wards will be held along with the election of councilors of the ward as per a recently enacted rule of the state for the proper implementation of development schemes and projects in the wards.
The ensuing election to the Imphal Municipal Council could be a deciding factor for the ruling Congress party in the state for next years general election with about 50 Congress candidates fighting in the IMC election which is the highest amongst the political parties of the state.
