Lok Sabha Election Schedule Announced. Voting on EVMs
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Sunil Arora today (March 10) has announced the election schedule for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The election will be held in 7 phases: 1st Phase – 11th April, 2nd Phase – 18th April, 3rd Phase – 23rd April, 4th Phase – 29th April, 5th Phase – 6th May, 6th Phase – 12th May, and 7th Phase – 19th May.
The counting of votes will take place on 23rd May.
While major political parties have complained about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and demanded voting on ballot papers, the CEC has rejected the demand and election will happen on EVMs.
This article is part of our exclusive editorial section that focuses on Lok Sabha Election 2019 in India.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) claims that elaborate standard operating procedures will be followed for using EVMs and VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail).
According to ECI, the total electorate in final published roll would be about 900 million in 2019 compared to 814.5 million in 2014, with an increase of 84.3 million voters.
The commission also will appoint social media experts as part of Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMCs). Candidates are required to provide details of their social media accounts and all expenditure on social media campaigning will be part of election expenditure account.
According to ECI, the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect from today in the entire country.
