The full team of Election Commission of India (ECI) along with three commissioners including Chief Election Commission (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel and all other deputy commissioners will arrive in the state on January 11th next for two days state visit and after visiting Meghalaya and Nagaland, ECI team will announce the poll schedules on January 18 next.

Addressing a press conference here at Civil Secretariat on Friday afternoon the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Tripura Kiran Gitte said that the ECI team comprising 16 members will review all preparedness of the state election department for ensuing assembly polls and three members commission of ECI after attending series of meeting with top officials, security officials, representatives of different political parties, the ECI team on January 12 will leave the state towards Meghalaya.

Gitte said that the ECI team after visiting Meghalaya will visit Nagaland on January 13 to 15 and the team will return back to New Delhi on January 15. He said that there are chances that the Commission will announce the poll schedules for three Northeastern states including Tripura on January 18 next.

While, after publication of final electoral rolls on Thursday (January 5th) with base date of January 1st, 2023, Kiran Gitte said Tripura has a record number of increased voters in the final electoral rolls at 2.91 %, which is very much higher in comparison to other states.

Gitte said that the Election Department of Tripura launched “Mission Zero Poll Violence & Mission 929” on December 31st last to raise mass awareness among the political parties, workers and voters to shun the violence and to conduct coming assembly elections of the state with an aim of  zero poll violence.

As announced, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday (January 5th) published the final electoral rolls based on January 1st, 2023, which has enrolled 79,587 more voters compared to draft electoral rolls.

While, , as per the final electoral rolls, the state has  now 28, 13,478 voters including male voters  14,14,576 and female voters 13,98,825, which had in the draft electoral rolls 27,33,891 voters in 60 Assembly constituencies published on November 9th, 2022 last , of which 13,80,181 are male voters, 13,53,664 female voters  and 46 third gender voters. Now, the third gender voters has increased to 77 and overall new voter enrollment stands at 2.91 %.

He said that now in 1000 population of the state , 666 persons are voters and as per final electoral rolls, the gender ratio stands at 989 female voters per 1000 male voters.

In the final list, altogether 65,044 voters of the age group of 18 years above were also enrolled including 12 third gender voters and among the newly enrolled voters, 10,766 female voters are more from male voters.

Significantly, in the final electoral roll, a total of 38,039 voters are above 80 years of age and 679 more voters are above 100 years of age. In the final rolls, 17,297 are physically disabled voters and the Election department has taken adequate measures for their voting facilities including ramp and wheelchairs in all 3,328 polling stations across eight districts of the state.

Gitte said that after two months of long process of inclusion, deletion and updation of draft electoral rolls, the final rolls had been published on Thursday with qualifying date on January 1st, 2023 as the qualifying date. After completion of stipulated period for inclusion, deletion and correction of electoral  rolls, the ECI has accorded approval for  final  publication  of electoral and as per new rolls, altogether 79,587 voter names has been included in final rolls, said Gitte and added that significantly in the final rolls, altogether 10,766 women voters are more compare to male voters in all 3,328 polling stations across eight districts of the state.

He said among 6,302 Bru families, all the names of eligible voters of 5,505 families, who were resettled in 12 designated spots across the state, were enrolled in the electoral rolls. He said that a total of 13,500 Bru voters named have been enrolled in the final electoral rolls and the names of remaining 800 families will be included after their rehabilitation in designated spots.

Ensuring free and fair elections, Gitte said that ECI has been taking all steps to ensure the festivities of peaceful voting and so far, the State Election department has got 50 companies of Central Arms Police Forces (CAPFs) till December 28 last.

He said that 50 more companies of CAPFs will arrive in the state by January 8th next and all these companies of central forces will be deployed across the state to maintain law and order situation during the election process.

He appealed to the people of the state to cast their valuable votes without any fear as ECI will not unturned any stone to ensure free and fair assembly elections.

After publication, the applicants and all other stakeholders are now to see final rolls-2023 in all the polling stations, designated locations, SDM Offices,  DM Offices, Tehsil Offices etc. The printing copies of EPIC  with newly enrolled electors has been handed over to representatives of political parties and if any one notices any error in the rolls, then ECI will update the error instantly as the updating of final electoral rolls is a continuous process.

During the press meet  additional CEO Ushajen Mog and deputy CEO Suman Banik were also present.