Imphal, Jan 8 (PTI) Manipur chief electoral officer Rajesh Agarwal Saturday said polling for the 12th Manipur Assembly will be held in 38 constituencies in the first phase on February 27 and in 22 seats in the second phase on March 3 and asked the stakeholders to abide by the model code of conduct till the end of the election process.

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The model code of conduct came into force in Manipur immediately after the Election Commission declared the poll dates on Saturday.

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Counting of votes for the 60-member House is scheduled on March 10 and the election process will be completed before March 12, Agarwal said.

The maximum number of star campaigners for recognised parties has been restricted to 30 instead of 40 while for unrecognized parties, it has been restricted to 15 from 20 in view of the COVID situation, he said.

Voters will be provided with face masks and gloves for exercising their franchise and services of ASHA workers and volunteers will be utilized to ensure sanitisation and queue management. Polling stations will be sanitized a day before the poll, Agarwal said.

To curb pre-poll violence 11767 out of the total 25299 licensed arms have been deposited at the police stations, the CEO said.

A total 1099 polling locations out of the total 2959 and 763 polling locations have been identified as "vulnerable and critical" and majority of these polling locations will be brought under webcasting/videography, he said.

Six assembly constituencies in the state have been identified as expenditure sensitive ones, the CEO said.

Campaigning for the election in both phases will come to an end 72 hours instead of 48 hours before the beginning of the poll, he said.

According to the final photo electoral roll there are 9,85,119 male, 10,49,639 women voters and 208 transgender electors who are eligible to exercise their franchise in the election.

The number of electors with disability is 14565 for whom the Election Commission has made provisions for postal ballot, while the number of voters above 80 years of age is 41867, Agarwal added. PTI COR

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)