The Karnataka State Election Commission (SEC) on Monday announced that elections to the five city corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) will be conducted using ballot papers, with the polls expected to be held after May 25.
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, State Election Commissioner G S Sangreshi said there was no legal or constitutional bar on the use of ballot papers for civic body elections.
“There are two best practices. Ballot papers have been used since the beginning. For the past 20–30 years, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been used. There is no Act or Supreme Court order that bars the use of ballot papers,” Sangreshi said in response to queries.
Describing ballot voting as an established procedure, he added, “Developed countries like the US, too, are using ballot papers. For all elections (in Karnataka), except Assembly and Lok Sabha, such as grama panchayat and cooperative elections, ballot papers are still used.”
Sangreshi said the GBA Act contained specific provisions permitting elections to be conducted either through EVMs or ballot papers. He added that the decision to adopt ballot papers was taken after consultations with all stakeholders.
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Referring to the Karnataka Cabinet’s recommendation in April last year to switch to ballot papers for local body elections, Sangreshi clarified that the SEC’s decision was independent of the state government’s view.
EVMs were first introduced in Bengaluru civic polls in 1996, making the city one of the earliest urban local bodies in the country to adopt electronic voting.
Providing details of the electorate, Special Commissioner (Elections), GBA, R Ramachandran said there were 88,91,411 voters across the five city corporations. Of them, 45,69,193 were men, 45,20,583 women and 1,635 registered under the ‘others’ category.
A total of 8,044 polling booths have been identified for the elections, he said. Among the five corporations, Bengaluru West has the highest number of voters at 27.25 lakh across 112 wards. Bengaluru North and South have 72 wards each, with voter populations of 19.54 lakh and 17.44 lakh respectively.
Bengaluru Central comprises 63 wards with 14.25 lakh voters, while Bengaluru East has 50 wards and 10.41 lakh voters. Among the 369 wards under the GBA, Ward 23 of Bengaluru West City Corporation has the highest number of voters, while Ward 16 of Bengaluru East City Corporation has the lowest, with 10,926 voters.
Ramachandran said the voter numbers were subject to revision following additions, deletions and verification by Booth Level Officers.
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