Booth slips for city voters from today

CHENNAI: The District Election Office would be kickstarting the mega exercise of distributing booth slips to 44.49 lakh-odd voters living in Chennai Corporation’s 200 wards from Saturday.Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting with the representatives of 32 Mayoral candidates at the Ripon Building here on Friday, D Karthikeyan, the District Election Officer and Commissioner of Chennai Corporation, said, “Printing of 44 lakh-odd booth slips have already been completed and the mega exercise of door-to-door distribution would begin by from Saturday and would be completed in about four days.”Chennai Corporation staff and officials from the recently annexed 42 local bodies have been tasked to distribute these booth slips, Karthikeyan said. He also announced that the State Election Commission has appointed three Observers to monitor the poll.On a question about sensitive booths, Karthikeyan said, “We have identified about 1,900 among the total 4,876 booths as sensitive and additional security cover would be provided at these booths.” The number of such booths will be increased if any untoward incident is reported in other areas.Karthikeyan said that the counting of votes would be organised in 18 centres.Earlier, Karthikeyan chaired a meeting of representatives of all 32 Mayoral candidates and explained the District Election Office’s efforts for implementing model code of conduct.