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regular-article-logo Friday, 22 November 2024

J&K polls: Election Commission sets up 24 polling stations to facilitate voting by Kashmiri migrants

Exempt from filling Form-M, the migrants can now cast their votes in person through electronic voting machines

PTI Jammu Published 24.08.24, 02:03 PM
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar with Election Commissioners SS Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar addresses a meeting on the General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana, in New Delhi, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar with Election Commissioners SS Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar addresses a meeting on the General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana, in New Delhi, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. PTI.

The Election Commission (EC) set up 24 special polling stations in Jammu, Udhampur and New Delhi to facilitate voting by Kashmiri migrants in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, a senior official said.

People, who were displaced from the Kashmir Valley and are residing in Jammu and Udhampur, would not have to fill Form-M, as was done in the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Jammu and Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole said in a statement issued on Friday.

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"Kashmiri migrant voters residing in various relief camps in Jammu, Udhampur, and Delhi, who have opted to cast their votes in person through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the election, can do so at 24 polling stations -- 19 in Jammu, 1 in Udhampur and 4 in Delhi," he said.

"Continuing with the historic decision taken by the ECI during the Lok Sabha elections, the earlier requirement for migrant electors in Jammu and Udhampur to fill out Form-M has been removed," he said.

Electors residing in zones and camps will be mapped to their respective polling stations in Jammu and Udhampur, the CEO added.

The draft roll extracts, mapping migrant electors residing in various zones in Jammu and Udhampur to the respective special polling stations, will be published soon. Any additions, deletions, or corrections would be allowed for a period of seven days, Pole said.

Following this, the final photo electoral roll extracts would be published for each polling station, based on which migrant electors would be allowed to vote at these special polling stations like any other voter, by producing the Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) or any of the 12 alternate photo identity documents notified by the EC, he said.

Migrants residing outside Jammu and Udhampur can now self-certify Form-M, instead of getting it attested by a gazetted officer or other authorities, Pole said.

"Those voters who are required to fill out Form-M -- those residing outside Jammu and Udhampur, who wish to exercise their franchise in person, should intimate the details of the electors in their families to the designated election officials," he said.

Additionally, all migrant voters who had not opted to vote in person had the option to vote through postal ballot papers, he said.

The 90 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir will go to polls in three phases starting September 18. Votes will be counted on October 4.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

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