Keeping Chhath holidays under consideration, the commission had fixed October 29 as the date for issuance of notification for the first phase of election. However, since the official date of holiday has been rescheduled to October 29 by the state government, the office of the chief electoral officer has sent a request to the commission asking it to change the date for issuance of notification to October 28, along with that of Jammu and Kashmir.
Soon after the declaration of dates by the commission in Delhi, chief electoral officer P K Jajoria addressed media in Ranchi and said along with the declaration of dates, a model code of conduct has come into force in the state. "The code would also apply to the Centre as far as announcements related to Jharkhand are concerned," he said. Despite the imposition of a model code of conduct, the state government has not been barred from holding cabinet meetings. Jajoria clarified that the normal functioning of the government would continue along with cabinet meeting, if required.
"The only restriction is on the announcement of any new scheme or approval of any new project by the cabinet," he said. Asked if the process of appointments, as already announced by the government would be affected due to model code, Jajoria said, "No new appointments could be made by the state government with immediate effect, even if the announcements were made earlier."
Despite an almost violence-free Lok Sabha general election held in three phases in Jharkhand in April this year, the commission decided to hold a five-phase election for the assembly polls. Justifying the decision, the CEO said security is always a major concern in Jharkhand and given the tough geographical terrain the timing for polling has been kept from 7am-3pm. "One of our main challenges is safe transport of polling parties to the 24648 polling stations, most of which (16744) are in the rural areas," said Jajoria.
As many as six districts will have elections spread across two phases. This includes Ranchi for out of the six assembly segments, Mandar would go for the polls in the second phase on December 2. The remaining five assembly constituencies will go to polls on December 9 in the third phase.
For the first time, the commission will be issuing VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) to the voters in Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Kanke and Hatia. "VVPAT is the paper note by which a voter can confirm if the vote he polled went to the correct candidate through a paper slip generated by the EVM machine," Jajoria said.
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